The Jenkyns Event, which occurred ca. 183 Myr ago (Early Toarcian, Jurassic), is one of the most extreme environmental and climatic perturbation events recorded in geological history. It was initiated by the massive volcanic activity of the Ferrar large igneous province that triggered cascading environmental feedbacks leading to global warming and mass extinction. Our understanding of this event derives however mostly from marine sedimentary archives, leaving a vast gap of knowledge about the response of terrestrial environments, and most importantly, the variations of atmospheric CO2 concentration during this event. By studying well exposed, yet underexplored Toarcian terrestrial deposits in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, this research project will fill this knowledge gap and therefore inform us about the intricate link between volcanic activity, changes in atmospheric greenhouse gases levels, global climate, and fluvial systems dynamic.Beskrivelse

CO2 mineralisation is a promising approach for permanent and safe underground removal of carbon dioxide at scale. This method involves the reaction of CO2 with silicate minerals to produce divalent cations and bicarbonate ions, which then recombine to form stable carbonate minerals, effectively sequestering CO2 in a solid state. So far, this method has been tested on basalt lava and ultramafic rocks, but never on volcanic ash. Given the substantial deposits of Eocene volcanic ash in western Denmark, this project aims to clarify the potential for gigaton-scale CO2-mineralisation in the Danish subsurface. Via geochemical analysis and laboratory experiments, we will determine how the ash deposits’ composition, texture, and alteration state affect their ability to generate alkalinity and precipitate carbonate minerals. Our goal is to lay the scientific groundwork for establishing the first CO2-mineralisation facility in Denmark and continental Europe.Beskrivelse

This research focusses on the Early Cretaceous palaeoenvironmental changes and aims to better understand their impact on the evolution in the Boreal Realm. In specific, long-term and short-term perturbations during the late Hauterivian to early Aptian will be studied and evaluated, including Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE) 1a. To do so, several palaeoenvironmental proxies were analysed on lithological successions from well cores in the Danish North Sea.Beskrivelse

The Early Bajocian event is characterized by a long-term (4 Myr duration) positive carbon isotope excursion signaling a protracted episode of organic matter burial and atmospheric pCO2 drawdown. This project aims to understand the cause of this event, the extend of cooling and potential transient glaciation associated to it, as well as it's impact on the neritic carbonate factory in the Central High Atlas Basin of Morocco.Beskrivelse

Around 180 Myr ago, the pulsed activity of the Karoo-Ferrar Large Igneous Province led to profound and repeated climatic environmental changes driven by rapid and voluminous changes in atmospheric greenhouse gases content, and resulting in a 2nd-order mass extinction event that was peculiarly severe for shallow-marine ecosystems. Understanding the modality of the shallow-marine carbonate collapse and recovery that have unfolded during this time interval therefore provides us a first-order analogue to the current anthropogenic threat on coral reef ecosystems.
Via a combination of extended field survey (sedimentology, biostratigraphy, and sequence stratigraphy analyses), and high-resolution geochemical investigations (stable carbon isotope, major and trace element analyses) in the Central High Atlas of Morocco and South-East France Basin, this project aims to: (1) Establish a high-resolution timeline of the multiple carbonate ecosystem collapse and recovery events during this time interval; (2) Understand the exact environmental parameters driving these changes in carbonate factoryBeskrivelse