Prof Louis Moresi
(m) +61 4 0333 1413
(us) +1 505 349 4425
www.moresi.infohttp://www.moresi.info/
www.www.geo-down-under.org.auhttps://www.www.geo-down-under.org.au
@LouisMoresihttps://twitter.com/LouisMoresi
Virtual Seminar Series
IGCP 648 Supercontinent Cycles & Global Geodynamics
Thank you to everyone who joined last week’s seminar, Ms Silvia Volante presented a fantastic overview of her extensive PhD work on the complicated evolution of the Georgetown Inlier. The recorded seminar will be available shortly on the IGCP 648 websitehttp://geodynamics.curtin.edu.au/igcp-648-virtual-seminar-series.
Join us this Thursday 19th November at 23:00 GMT for our next ‘seminar’. This will be a unique new format where two sides of a contentious geological topic will be debated in what we are calling an Epic Earth Science Battle. Round 1 will involve professors J. Brendan Murphy, R. Damian Nance, & David Evans debating: Pannotia.
Some more information on the seminar along with the recorded previous seminars are available on the IGCP 648 websitehttp://geodynamics.curtin.edu.au/igcp-648-virtual-seminar-series/.
Feel free to forward the sign up linkhttps://forms.gle/zR7hWdpS1ppJ6HTt5 to anyone you think may be interested.
You can also follow us on twitter herehttps://twitter.com/IGCP648.
The seminar
Hosted on Zoom. If you do not already have an account, please sign up for their free one and download the Zoom app. Join meeting 5 minutes before the start time using the following details:
Meeting ID: 917 3302 1279
Password: 6kJu5M
Link: Launch Meeting - Zoom
Time zones
Toronto: 6 pm (Thursday)
London: 11 pm (Thursday)
Bern: 12 am (midnight)
New Delhi: 4:30 am (Friday)
Beijing/Perth: 7 am (Friday)
Sydney: 10 am (Friday)
Speaker bios
J. Brendan Murphy is a native of Birr, Ireland, and moved to Canada after completing his B.Sc. in geology at University College Dublin. He received a Ph.D. in geological sciences at McGill University in 1982 and joined St. Francis Xavier University, where he is now a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences. His research interests include mountain-building processes and the relation between tectonic activity and igneous processes.
R. Damian Nance is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus and past Chair of Geological Sciences at Ohio University. He received his B.Sc. (Hons) in geology at the University of Leicester, UK in 1972. He moved to Canada in 1976 after completing his Ph.D. in geology at the University of Cambridge, where he studied the application of plate tectonic theory to the development of ancient mountain belts and developed his research interest in tectonic activity and large-scale geodynamic processes.
David Evans is a professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences at Yale University. He completed his B.Sc. at Yale University in 1992 before moving to Caltech to undertake his M.Sc. and Ph.D. under the guidance of Joe Kirschvink. His research interests include continental reconstructions; supercontinents; paleomagnetism; characteristics of the Precambrian geomagnetic field; and the implications for the long-term Earth evolution of geodynamics, tectonics, climate change, and life. Prof. Evans is a project co-leader of IGCP 648.
Abstract
Pannotia is a putative supercontinent that may have existed briefly in the Ediacaran but remains highly controversial. Even those in favour of its existence acknowledge that major issues remain about the timing, duration and even its size. Because the assembly, tenure and demise of supercontinents plays a key role in Earth dynamics (through the supercontinent cycles), the very existence of Pannotia, and the legitimacy of Pannotia as a supercontinent is a fundamental question.
To tip the scales one way or the other, Prof. Damian Nance & Prof. Brendan Murphy will present their arguments in favour of Pannotia, and Prof. David Evans, well, he will argue against it.
Battle rules:
- The moderator will flip a coin to decide who will start.
- The two teams will have 20 minutes to present their arguments.
- The moderator will pick 5-6 questions from the audience through the chat and each team will have 2 minutes to respond.
- Each team will have 5 minutes to present their concluding remarks.
- The session will then be open for general discussion/questions.
Guidelines
• The seminar will be approx. 1.5 hours (20 minutes per argument followed by questions/discussions).
• We encourage participants to share their webcam footage so that the presenters can see the audience, but this is completely optional.
• The talk will be recorded if agreed by the presenter and a link will be sent around soon after the talk.
• We have a detailed code of conduct herehttps://drive.google.com/open?id=1pTfzRUOarcCIGnFgmax5bQiLsi2Xiyg8 that participants must agree to.
All the best
IGCP 648 Virtual Seminar Series’ Team
Ross, Sheree, Luc and Josh