Lecture: Fossil plankton from drilling the deep sea; stratigraphy, evolution and climate change
Speaker:
Entry Fee
Members: Free
Visitors: £5.00
Date and Time
19:30 -
Location
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HN
Lecture Description
This talk focuses on the use of microscopic fossils from deep sea sediments and how they were used in recent scientific coring expedition to the Indo-Pacific ‘warm pool’ - the hottest part of the oceans.
Professor Pearson will describe how microfossils are used to date sediment cores recovered from hundreds of metres below the sea bed, stretching back millions of years in time; what can be learned from them about evolution and extinction in the oceans; and how the chemistry of the shells is used to track changes in temperature, the waxing and waning of the ice sheets, and the role of carbon dioxide in shaping earth’s climate history.