Web: http://massextinction.princeton.edu/
Organising committee: Gerta Keller (gkeller@princeton.edu), Andrew Kerr (kerra@cf.ac.uk), Norman MacLeod (n.macleod@nhm.ac.uk), Mike Widdowson (m.widdowson@open.ac.uk), Vincent Courtillot (courtil@ipgp.fr), Ashok Sahni (ashok.sahni@gmail.com), Thierry Adatte (thierry.adatte@unil.ch)
This conference brings together researchers across the geological, geophysical, and biological disciplines to assess the state of research into the causes of mass extinction events. The main goal is to evaluate the respectiveroles of volcanism, bolide impacts, sea level fluctuations and associated climate and environmental changes in major episodes of species extinction.
Over the past 30 years considerable research efforts have been directed toward understanding the context and nature of environmental changes that occurred immediately prior to, at, and after the five major Phanerozoic mass extinctions. Important new data and observations have emerged from the fields of palaeontology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, geochronology, geochemistry, mineralogy, volcanology, geophysics, palaeomagnetism and astrophysics. Consequently, a critical review of these data — and their implications with respect to identification of the cause(s) of these eco-evolutionary events — is warranted. The conference is intended to foster a new, collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to resolving outstanding problems in this field.
Invited speakers:
DallasAbbott (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University)
Thierry Adatte (Université de Lausanne)
Dave Archibald (San Diego State University)
Howard Armstrong (Durham University)
Mike Benton (University of Bristol)
Samuel Bowring (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Vincent Courtillot (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, University of Paris)
Linda Elkins-Tanton (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Frederic Fluteau (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, University of Paris)
Brian Gertsch (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Iain Gilmour (The Open University)
Anthony Hallam (University of Birmingham)
Maud Moulin (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, University of Paris)
Michael Joachimski (University of Erlangen)
Simon Kelley (University of Aberdeen)
Gerta Keller (Princeton University)
Andrew Kerr (Cardiff University)
Christian Koeberl (University of Vienna)
Norman MacLeod (Natural History Museum)
William Napier (Cardiff University)
Jozsef Palfy (Eötvös University)
Paul Renne (University of California, Berkeley)
Ashok Sahni (Punjab University)
Andrew Saunders (University of Leicester)
Stephen Self (The Open University)
Robert Spicer (The Open University)
John Warme (Colorado School of Mines)
Mike Widdowson (The Open University)
Paul Wignall (University of Leeds)