Hi everyone,
Please join us for the final Geodynamics Seminar of the Fall Semester in the Seismology Seminar Room (seismology 2nd floor) this coming Monday, December 2nd at 2 pm. Stephen Meyers from the University of Wisconsin, who is currently visiting Lamont on sabbatical, will be presenting on astrochronology—or, using Earth's astronomical motions as a geological timekeeper and planetary decoder!
All the best,
Conor Bacon, Josh Murray, Collin Brandl, and Terry Plank
Title: Astrochronology: Using Earth’s Astronomical Motions as a Geological Timekeeper and Planetary Decoder
Abstract: The long history of our planet provides a rich tapestry of boundary conditions and past ‘experiments’, which can be used to understand how the Earth System works and can inform decisions about our future. But how do we decode that history from a complex geological record? In this seminar, I will discuss how quasiperiodic variations in Earth’s orbit and rotational axis (‘astronomical cycles’) can be used as a central framework to measure geologic time, reconstruct the behavior of the ancient Earth System, and test hypotheses about the behavior of the Solar System, over the past several billion years. Examples range from reconstructing early Earth-Moon history, to understanding the past and future of our planet’s polar ice sheets. The power of this astronomical framework is enhanced by the recognition of astronomy, geochronology, paleoclimatology and depositional system reconstruction as a unified geoscientific inverse problem.
Bio: Dr. Stephen R. Meyers is a Vilas Distinguished Professor of Geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA), where he has developed a research, teaching and outreach program that addresses climate change, Earth System history, and Solar System evolution. His research is at the interface of sedimentary geology, geochemistry, statistics and astronomy, and he is also active in developing new approaches for science education that engage art-science collaboration.
Zoom link:
https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/j/92780275650?pwd=BgfOzfYBkYE2iTUEKMkE2wJLoDI7Ul.1
For a complete view of the planned seminars this semester, please visit the calendar on the Geodynamics Seminar webpage.
