International Geological Correlation Programme
This five-year project, which started in mid-2003, is investigating the changes that took place in palaeotropical terrestrial habitats towards the end of the Moscovian Age (Late Carboniferous Period — c. 300 million years ago). During Moscovian-times, wetland forests dominated by giant club-mosses had spread across large areas of palaeotropical North America, Europe, Central Asia and China. Towards the end of Moscovian-times, however, these wetland habitats suffered widespread disruption and large areas of the forest disappeared. This coincided with a number of changes to the physical-environment. In parts of the palaeotropics, major changes were taking place to the landscape, following the collision between the Gondwana and Euramerica continental plates. At the same time, there was marked global climatic warming resulting in the melting of much of the polar ice-caps.
These were some of the most dramatic changes to affect terrestrial life in Earth's history, but we still have remarkably little understanding of the pattern and timing of the changes, and what caused them. The aim of the project is to bring together data from a range of disciplines, including palaeobotany, palynology, palaeozoology and sedimentology, to try to improve our understanding of the pattern and tempo of these environmental changes across the palaeotropics.
Meetings
The project is being structured around a series of meetings in different locations across the study-area.
- Utrecht (August 2003)
- Sofia (April 2004)
- Freiberg, Saxony (October 2004)
- Cardiff (April 2005)
- Halifax, Nova Scotia (June 2005)
- Bucharest (September 2005)
- Prague (September 2006)
Secretariat
Senior Project Coordinator: Dr C. J. Cleal, National Museums & Galleries of Wales, Cardiff (E-mail form)
Project Coordinator (Eastern Europe): Prof. Y. G. Tenchov, Geological Institute, Sofia (ytenchov@abv.bg)
Project Coordinator (Central Europe): Dr S. Oplustil, Charles University, Prague (oplustil@mail.natur.cuni.cz)
Project Coordinator (Western Europe): Prof. B. A. Thomas, University of Wales, Aberystwyth (bat@aber.ac.uk)
Project Coordinator (N. America): Prof. E. L. Zodrow, University Collage of Cape Breton, Sydney NS (erwin_zodrow@uccb.ca)
Project Administrator: Miss H. Fraser, National Museums & Galleries of Wales, Cardiff (E-mail form)
Newsletters
Copies of the project newsletters can be downloaded as pdf files.
Other links
IGCP Home Page http://www.unesco.org/science/earthsciences/igcp/
