In the darkest hour…

“It is only in our darkest hours that we may discover the true strength of the brilliant light within ourselves that can never, ever, be dimmed. -Doe Zantamata.

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  The faint light of the setting sun

I try to find comfort in that quote, that there is a light within, that can keep on shining even through the roughest of times. That there is hope to hold on to when everything seems lost.

I am at that place where darkness makes it hard to even breathe and hope is just a flicker of light. Economic cutbacks to balance a budget. Nothing I say or do, not all the good work I’ve done, nor my dedication and commitment , makes any difference, the decision is final.

And just like that the light within fades. The days go dark. The future as I thought it would be is gone.

I love doing research. Geology and geoscience is more than just a job, it’s a passion, a calling if you will. So much is lost because of this.

I hope I can find the light again…

Reaching out to the public on mass extinctions and climate crises (partly in Danish)

One of the challenging but fun things of being a researcher is public outreach, i.e. explaining your research to non-scientists or scientists within other fields. This is challenging for many researchers, because many are introverts who prefer to stay out of the spot light, including myself. However, I have learned through the years that public outreach is a really important part of what I do, and over the last couple of years I have had some opportunities to explain what I do and why it is important, especially concerning mass extinctions and climate crises in the history of life on Earth.

Researchers at GEUS sometimes get asked by journalists who write about science for the public to read and comment on other researchers scientific papers. In my case, I usually get to comment on papers that deal with mass extinctions or climate crises in the past. A few times, I have been interviewed about my own research. This is always fun, and helps me put my own research in perspective. Why is what I do important? Is it just basic science or is there more to it than that.

Early last year, I participated in the Danish radioprogram/podcast VILDT NATURLIGT discussing mass extinctions, mercury and large-scale volcanism with hosts Vicky Knudsen and Johan Olsen – in Danish. For me, it is always an extra challenge speaking in Danish, mostly because I know that I sound very Swedish. But it was a lot of fun and the hosts really made me feel welcome and relaxed.

“Vildt Naturligt” hosts Vicky Knudsen and Johan Olsen.

This was all related to our paper published in the open access journal SCIENCE ADVANCES in October 2019: Volcanic mercury and mutagenesis in land plants during the end-Triassic mass extinction, which deals with how ferns suddenly produced large amounts of mutated spores during and after the end-Triassic mass extinction and how we think that was related to the on-going volcanic activity in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province.

The Press and Communications Department at GEUS made a press release and a small video explaining our research which you can read and watch here.

A 201 million year old normal fern spore (to the left) and four spores showing increasing malformations.

More recently, I participated in an issue of the Danish popular science journal GEOVIDEN which aims at informing Danish school children about geoscience. The issue is dedicated to spores and pollen and how you can use these to learn about the past, both in geological and archaeological investigations. It contains information about what pollen and spores and how you extract them from sediments or sedimentary rocks, but also two sections about more specific research using spores and pollen (1) the above story of mutated spores during the end-Triassic mass extinction event, and (2) a story on how pollen and spores from a medieval latrine could tell what people were eating back then.

If you can read Danish, you can check out the GEOVIDEN issue on spores and pollen here:

Pollen og sporer | Geoviden

The titel page of the GEOVIDEN issue on Pollen and spores!

In connection to the GEOVIDEN issue, we also made a small film on how we extract spores and pollen from a sedimentary rock, e.g. a shale or a siltstone. The film was made by the Underground Channel who specialises in producing popular science films. It was filmed at GEUS during a couple of days in late autumn 2020. Because of COVID restrictions, very few people were allowed to be in the building, so basically it was just the few us participating in the film there. The film includes footage from our excellent Palynological and micropalaeontological lab, as well as my office. In addition, the film also contains footage from our core drilling at Sose Bay in Bornholm.

The film is also in Danish (or Sweanish in my case).

A new year and some reflections…

A small stream over Lower Jurassic sedimentary rocks in the lush forest outside my hometown.

 

I was born in the sixties. I guess I wasn’t much into science back then. At least I wasn’t aware I was. Life was more about learning new skills, playing and growing. There was one children’s program on TV and as I recall, it rarely featured cartoons. Instead it aired shadow- or puppet theatres, or grown-ups talking to puppets on strings. We had no computers or mobile phones. We had board games and cards. Playing on your own was something you did to pass time. Or you were just bored beyond belief.

Time could sometimes move very slowly when I was a kid. I can still remember the sounds and smells of my childhood home so vividly, probably because I sometimes was so bored that I couldn’t do anything but listen to the ticktock of my grandfather’s clock, while I was lying on the floor scrutinizing the pattern on the wallpaper or brading the fringe of the carpet. Time is relative.

We played a lot outside in the park or the nearby woods. My home town is built on an escarpment of Triassic–Jurassic boundary rocks. We scrambled the slopes of the escarpment, climbing on 200 million year old sandstones and shales, every day. We climbed trees and crawled through bushes, picking berries and nuts. We played veterinary hospital in the rose garden at the centre of the park, saving butterflies and beetles from drowning in the spring fountain. Science was everywhere in the subtlests of ways.

We watched re-runs of the lunar landing, and tv-shows like Star Trek, Space: 1999, Mission impossible, the Invisible man etc., shows where science was always present as part of the story. Maybe that is why I already in 4th grade had my mind set on becoming a doctor, a veterinarian, an astronomer, or a microbiologist. I never thought about becoming a geologist. Geology wasn’t anything we were taught at school. It wasn’t until I had to apply for university that I suddenly realised geology was a university subject. I remember reading the few lines that described it, thinking “that could be interesting”. It wasn’t my number one choice, but when I was accepted for the Geology program, I deleted all other options. I have never regretted that. I love geology! I love the way it encompasses so many aspects of our planet and the life on it. There is always something new to discover and something new to learn.

In this day and age when some of the world leaders turn their backs on science, knowledge and learning, it is particularly important for scientists around the world to continue their work. Science is everywhere, in the world around us and in the technology that we use. In the water that we drink, the medicines we use and in the food that we eat. Let us not ignore climate change or environmental issues. Let us be smarter than that.

Let us make 2018 a Happy New Science Year!

 

 

On the end-Triassic mass extinction – In Danish

This spring an entire issue of the Danish Geoscience journal Geoviden was dedicated to our research project “The Triassic–Jurassic boundary: Impact of a Large Igneous Province on the geobiosphere”. Geoviden is a popular science magazine aimed at high school students and everyone else interested in geology and geography. Our issue is called “A crisis in the history of life” and  presents the background, hypothesis and progress of our Geocenter Denmark financed project. Unfortunately for non-Scandinavian readers it is in Danish. It is richly illustrated and covers various aspects of our research. It can be downloaded for free using this link, so feel free to check it out: Geoviden No 1 2016: “En krise i livets historie”

Front page illustration by Stefan Sølberg, GEUS.

“What lies beneath…”

The Sose Bay area on the Danish island of Bornholm is a beautiful place. Here, the lush greens of the partly forested coastline with its white sandy beaches meets the Baltic Sea, and at the horizon there is nothing but sky.

Sose Bay in October 2013 (Photo: Lars Henrik Nielsen, GEUS)

Early Jurassic rocks crop out along the coast; the sands and clays still soft after 200 million years, revealing a multitude of sedimentary structures when scraped free of their weathered surfaces.

Left: a small weathered coastal section. Right: Same section after rinsing. (Photo: Sofie Lindström, GEUS)

 

 

Wave ripples (Photo: Gunver K. Pedersen, GEUS)

The most continuous sedimentary succession in the coastal cliff is exposed east of Sose Odde. It comprises a c. 24 m thick section including restricted marine, eustarine, lacustrine and fluvial deposits, and was described in detail by Surlyk et al. (1995). The outcropping succession belongs to the Sose Bugt Member of the Rønne Formation, which was assigned a Hettangian–Sinemurian (Early Jurassic) age based on its fossil palynological (spores, pollen, microalgae) content. In 2014, Clemmensen et al. described the presence of steep-walled, flat- to concave-bottomed depressions, with a raised ridge at each side, that were interpreted as dinosaur tracks.

One of the dinosaur tracks described by Clemmensen et al. (2014). (Phoyo: Sofie Lindström, GEUS)

 

The dinosaur tracks are found in layers interpreted to have been deposited in small streams on a large coastal plain. Clemmensen et al. (2014) suggest that the dinosaurs may have preferred to use shallow channels as paths. The succession also contains thin coal seams and layers penetrated by numerous vertical roots, remnants of 200 million year old vegetation.

Numerous thin vertical roots penetrating a thick sand layer (Photo: Sofie Lindström, GEUS).

 

So these are the sediments that lie immediately beneath our feet when we walk the fields at Sose Bay, below a thin cover of Quaternary sediments. But what lies beneath? Would sediments deposited before, during and after the end-Triassic mass extinction be present?

The drill site and equipment (Photo: Gunver K. Pedersen, GEUS).

 

In order to find out, we performed a core drilling in the Sose Bay area, with the aim to reach typical red and green coloured Late Triassic sediments – and hopefully Triassic–Jurassic boundary sediments.We drilled with a core drilling technique that sealed the sedimentary cores in plastic pipes.

The core catcher brings up a new core (Photo: Gunver K- Pedersen, GEUS).

 

John Boserup checkes the bottom of a core (Photo: Gunver K. Pedersen, GEUS).

 

By checking the bottom of each pipe when they were brought to the surface, it was possible to see when the red and green Triassic had been reached. At a depth of 110 m below ground, we reached red Triassic sediments.

Red and green clay and some sand at the bottom of a core (Photo: Gunver K. Pedersen, GEUS).

 

But because the cores were sealed in red plastic pipes, we still had no idea how complete the drilled succession would be. All we could do was wait until the cores had been transported back to GEUS.

Sealed red plastic pipes  containing the cored succession of the Sose-1 well (Photo: Gunver K. Pedersen, GEUS).

 

 

To be continued…

 

 

 

Silence = work in progress – update on our TJ-boundary project

I realised the other day that it has been ages since I last posted something on Triassica. Why is that?  Sometimes life gets in the way and you have to direct your attention elsewhere. The simple explanation is that I have been far too busy.

Anyway, I decided it is time to break the silence, so I will try to publish some posts about how our Geocenter Denmark financed research project on the Triassic-Jurassic boundary is progressing. A lot of fun things have happened since we drilled the Sose-1 well on Bornholm in October 2014, hoping to find Triassic-Jurassic boundary strata – so stay tuned, updates are coming 🙂

The newly arrived Sose-1 core boxes at GEUS in November 2014. The sealed pipes contain the sedimentary cores from the drilling. At this stage no one knows what the sedimentary succession in the pipes look like. (Photo: John Boserup, GEUS)

 

 

 

Mignon Talbot and the forgotten women of Paleontology.

Nice blog post on women in palaeontology by Paleonerdish! Check out her nice blog 🙂

Letters from Gondwana.

Mignon Talbot  (From Turner et al, 2010)

The nineteenth century was the “golden age” of Geology, and women began to play an important role in the advance of this field of science. They collected fossils and mineral specimens, and were allowed to attend scientific lectures, but they were barred from membership in scientific societies. It was common for male scientists to have women assistants, often their own wives and daughters. A good example of that was Mary Lyell (1808–1873), daughter of the geologist Leonard Horner and the wife of eminent geologist Charles Lyell. But for most of men, the participation of women in geology and paleontology was perceived as a hobby.

Mary Anning (1799-1847), was a special case. She was the most famous woman paleontologist of her time, and found the first specimens of what would later be recognized as Ichthyosaurus, the first complete Plesiosaurus, the first pterosaur skeleton outside Germany…

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We’ve reached the Triassic!

During Saturday core drilling at Sose bugt continued slowly. Because the sedimentary succession is fairly unconsolidated we are drilling with a technique that encase the cored sediments in 1,5 m long pipes. This means that it is only possible to investigate the cored sediments at the top or bottom of each core section. Typical Early Jurassic whitish sands and grey clays had been cored during the first three days of drilling. On Saturday we were closing in on two prominent seismic horizons, one which we suspected could be the top of the Triassic redbeds. At 91 m there were still grey clays but also coal. But at 95 m the top of the core showed dark grey clays, while the bottom consisted of light green sand and clay typical for the Upper but not the uppermost Triassic. We had finally reached the Triassic! 🙂

Drilling will continue for a few more hours tomorrow until the geophysical logging equipment arrives. We are all very excited and can’t wait to get the cores back to GEUS so that we can study them. Almost 95 m of Lower Jurassic and hopefully also uppermost Triassic (Rhaetian) near coastal sedimentary strata which we think will provide us with additional information on the end-Triassic mass extinction and the biotic recovery that followed.

Sose Bugt on Bornholm is a beautiful place (photo: S. Lindström)

Update on TJ-boundary core drilling

The Sose Bugt outcrop and our on-site technician.

Our core drilling through the Triassic-Jurassic boundary at Sose Bugt on Bornholm is progressing faster than expected. The drilling commenced Wednesday and we have already reached a depth of 64 m. Just like the outcrop succession along the beach, the deposits that mainly consist of sand, heteroliths and clay are faurly unconsolidated. The biggest challenges so far have been a siderite and a loose sand layer. None of these two were successfully cored.

Our on-site technician is providing updates for us and we are ready to take the next ferry to Bornholm as soon as we get close to our target depth. With the current drilling speed this may happen sooner than expected 🙂

Drilling through Triassic-Jurassic boundary strata

On Tuesday next week we launch our new core drilling project. This time we are going to drill through the lowermost Jurassic sedimentary succession at Sose Bugt on the Danish island of Bornholm, with the aim to reach uppermost Triassic rocks. Despite many excellent geological studies in the area it is not clear if the Triassic-Jurassic boundary is preserved on the Sose Fault block, but the presence of Hettangian-Sinemurian strata in the coastal cliffs at Sose Bugt and Upper Triassic green and red clays along parts of the coast make it an ideal area to drill for the TJB.

Our core drilling project is funded by Geocenter Denmark and is a part of our research project on the end-Triassic mass extinction event. The core drilling will provide us with new research material, hopefully both of the mass extinction interval and of the recovery in the earliest Jurassic.

Quite excited about this! 🙂

Beautiful Hettangian (lowermost Jurassic) clays and sands at Sose Bugt, Bornholm, Denmark (Photo: Sofie Lindström)