| Co-operating investigators: | Jingeng SHA -China, Vivi VAJDA – Sweden, Paul OLSEN – USA, Emma Sammel MSAKY – Tanzania, Mohammed ET-TOUHAMI – Morocco, Olena SHEVCHUK – Ukraine, Hamish CAMPBELL – New Zealand, Wolfram M. Kürschner – Norway,
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| Anotation: | This IGCP project will more specifically focus on the Jurassic Period, starting with the mass extinction event that occurred 202 million years ago just prior to the Triassic-Jurassic boundary, through the Toarican anoxic event 183 million year ago and finally covering the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary at 145 million years ago where major lake systems expanded over continents. The Jurassic and Cretaceous constitute the ‘age of the dinosaurs’, a time interval with green house conditions when perennially warm vegetation types extended into the high-latitudes of Scandinavia, Greenland, China and in fact to the poles. The research focuses on major events and their relation to climatic and environmental changes within these ancient lacustrine ecosystems, and the correlation with the marine realm. Additionally, our project has a strong component of applied Earth sciences because these sediments host significant fossil fuel resources, including coal, gas and petroleum that are stored in the sub-surface. Organic-rich shales and limestones are a prominent feature of most of our target areas. Future developments prosperous society depends on access to energy resources, the negative effects of burned fossil fuels can be mitigated by CO2 sequestration, where carbon dioxide is removed from the flue gas and stored in underground reservoirs.
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