Snowball Earth: The Scottish Evidence
In this talk, we will step onto a geological time machine, to examine evidence for the most extreme climate change in our planet’s history. The Garvellach Islands and Islay expose a magnificent section of the Port Askaig Formation deposited some 700 million years ago at a time of extreme world-wide glaciation ('Snowball Earth'). These rocks contain an extraordinary number of glacial features and record the onset of the glaciation defining the start of the Cryogenian Period of the Precambrian. Life as we know it today radiated out from the very few survivors of this global climatic Armageddon.
Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow 223rd Annual Lecture Series
Date: Wednesday 08 January 2025
Time: 19:30 - 21:00
Venue: Sir Charles Wilson Building LT 201
Category: Public lectures
Speaker: David Webster
David is a geologist who juggles his time between Glasgow and Islay. He graduated from Oxford University in 1976 and in later life did a Master's degree in environmental management at Strathclyde University and also an MSc. on aspects of the geology of Islay at Stockholm University. He is a member of an active multi-disciplinary team researching this ancient glaciation in Scotland. He has written guidebooks to the geology of Islay, Jura and Colonsay and he is currently the Secretary of the Geological Society of Glasgow and a Board Member of the Fossil Grove Trust.
Please note, this is a change of speaker previously listed on the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow website due to the previously arranged speaker being unable to come to Glasgow).