RV Jones Science Lecture with Professor Chris Jackson

The Geological Record of Climate Change; What Do the Rocks and Fossils Tell Us?

The Earth is warming, with present and future changes in our climate being of global concern. However, it is important to understand that since its formation of approximately 4.6 billion years ago, the Earth’s climate has varied between periods when ice sheets extended down to very low-altitudes at low-latitudes, to times when water at the Equator was as the same temperature as bath water. 

Occurring before humans inhibited the Earth, these often dramatic and rapid changes in climate were driven by a range of natural processes, controlling the habitability of our planet and its associated biodiversity. In this talk we will look at the geological record of climate change, how these changes impacted life on Earth, and how this can help us better understand our present and future climate.

Chris Jackson is Technical Director at the engineering consultancy WSP and Visiting Professor of Basin Analysis at Imperial College London. Chris works in the general area of sedimentary basin analysis. When not studying the subsurface of the Earth, Chris gives geoscience lectures to the public and in schools, having appeared on several, Earth Science-focused, television productions and podcasts. Chris is engaged in efforts to improve equality, diversity, and inclusivity in Higher Education.