Universität Wien

450007 VO Phanerozoic Mass Extinctions (NPI) (2015S)

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes

Block im März und April:

Vorlesungsteil und Übungsteil: MI wtl von 04.03.2015 bis 13.05.2015 15.00-18.00 Ort: Friedrich Becke Seminarraum 2C315 3.OG UZA II


Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The Phanerozoic record of global physical perturbations and mass extinctions provides a key repository for understanding Earth’s integrated physical and ecosystemic responses to crises. Modern climate change and extinction, far from being unprecedented, can be viewed as just the most recent forays into an Earth perhaps unfamiliar in the present, but largely recognizable in the geological past. This course, therefore, explores these changes by a review of the physical and biotic conditions associated with the five great Phanerozoic mass extinction events. It culminates in the current biotic and climate crisis(es), posing the question of whether the biotic and climatic records of the past 125,000 years suggest that the Earth is currently undergoing a sixth mass extinction of the type previously seen on Earth; or whether this is unprecedented in Earth history.

Assessment and permitted materials

written examination

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Examination topics

Reading list


Association in the course directory

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:47