Back to the future

Two faculty members in the Department of Geology and Geophysics are part of an organizing team that proposes to further investigate the ancient record of Earth’ s processes to better understand its evolving transformation and future implications.

Called the Deep Time Earth-Life Observatory Network or DETELON, the group comprises scientists from multiple disciplines who study Earth’ s ancient—or deep—geologic history. Dr. Anne Raymond is a member of the steering committee, and Dr. Tom Olszewski is an invited participant. From its initial meeting in April, the DETELON committee plans to help other researchers, policy makers and the general public better understand how events in Earth’ s ancient past, going back more than 600 million years, can provide insight into present and future global conditions.

The College of Geosciences has created and is sponsoring the website for the initiative.

“The scientific community has made great strides in gathering climate and environmental information from sources such as ice cores, tree rings, and sediments that have given us insight into the complex glacial to interglacial conditions in Earth’ s recent past,” said Dr. Olszewski. “ We now need to look further back in Earth’ s geological history to see how Earth’ s ecosystems will respond to current geological events such as increases in global mean temperatures and ocean acidification created by uptakes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”

The DETELON group will introduce the scientific community to the initiative’ s mission and goals in a series of presentations at national scientific conferences, including the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Ultimately, the aim of the DETELON initiative is to establish a means of funding cross-disciplinary teams of scientists who will investigate episodes of ancient Earth system change as a means of understanding the consequences of the unparalleled pressures occurring in the environment and ecosystem in the present day. “ We may be heading toward environmental conditions that can only be analogous to those found in Earth’ s deep history,” Olszewski said. A report outlining research areas under consideration lists possible investigations into past events, also occurring today, such as low-oxygen, highly acidic oceans, ice-free poles, flooded continents, and unstable life and environmental systems.

The organizing committee has concluded that an interdisciplinary approach is the best way to integrate the different bodies of knowledge to answer critical questions about the rates, patterns and processes involved in Earth’ s critical transitions, like that which the planet is currently undergoing.

The College of Geosciences has created and is sponsoring the website for the initiative.