Fredagskollokvium: Earth Evolution and Dynamics

The Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED) is hosted by the Department of Geosciences and funded by the Research Council of Norway as a Centre of Excellence (2013-2023). CEED is dedicated to research of fundamental importance to the understanding of our planet, which embraces the dynamics of the plates, the origin of large scale volcanism, the evolution of climates and the abrupt demise of life forms. This ambitious venture will hopefully result in a new understanding of Earth’s evolution and of how the solid Earth has interacted with atmosphere and biosphere through time. Our planet’s first order changes in climate and biodiversity strongly depend on the configuration of continental landmasses and ocean basins through time and it is thus crucial to reconstruct in detail the evolution of Earth’s crust. CEED will bridge the knowledge gap between (1) plates and plumes, and (2) the processes leading to the rapid changes in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases documented in the geological record. Our results will also improve our knowledge of similarities and differences between Earth and other terrestrial planets, and perhaps the most fundamental question is why the Earth appears to be the only terrestrial planet with plate tectonics. To ensure that the CEED mission is effectively met, activities are carried out within the following thematic research framework:

Deep Earth: Large Low Shear wave Velocity Provinces and Plumes
Dynamic Earth: Plate motions and Earth history
Earth Crises: Large Igneous Provinces, mass extinctions and environmental changes
Earth and Beyond: Comparative Planetology
Virtual Earth: Numerical models of Earth Dynamics