Project description
Homing in on ancient and immense global changes
A little more than a half a billion years ago (during the Ediacaran-early Cambrian period), Earth underwent immense changes on land, in the sea and in the atmosphere. The domination of microorganisms gave way to an explosion of complex animals, there was a rapid retreat of ice sheets and glaciers, the carbon isotope composition of marine rocks declined significantly, and atmospheric oxygen rose to present levels. Understanding these changes is complicated by aberrant paleomagnetic data used to determine the ancient continental positions. The EU-funded EPIC project intends to identify the cause of the aberrant data and then directly reconstruct the paleogeography of the Ediacaran-early Cambrian period for the first time.
Objective
The Ediacaran-early Cambrian (~635-520 Ma) was an interval of immense global change with fundamental state shifts occurring in the bio-cryo- and atmosphere. Such changes included the abrupt appearance and rapid diversification of modern metazoan life (the Ediacaran fauna and Cambrian explosion), the end of protracted, global-scale glaciations (Snowball Earth), the rise of atmospheric oxygen to present-day levels, and the perturbation of carbon isotopic records to extremes otherwise unknown to Earth history. Given the immensity and abruptness of those changes, they are clearly essential to an understanding of the development of life, the history of climatic change and the evolution of the oxygen and carbon cycles. Accordingly, great effort has been dedicated to acquiring detailed temporal records to investigate those changes through time, but we still lack a robust paleogeographic framework to study them in space. This is because paleomagnetic datawhich are used to determine the ancient positions of continentsexhibit aberrant behaviour at this time, the meaning of which is unknown. Four alternative hypotheses have been formulated to explain them: 1) rapid rotations of the entire solid Earth (true polar wander), 2) an unstable magnetic field, 3) pervasive data corruption, or 4) ultra-fast plate motion. Each of these hypotheses has far-reaching implications: Hypotheses 1, 2 & 4 reflect dramatic non-uniformitarian processes that would defy our understanding of geodynamics, whereas hypothesis 3 poses grave challenges to the interpretation of paleomagnetic data in Precambrian time. My vision with EPIC is to investigate and identify the origin(s) of the aberrant paleomagnetic data of this age, and to use that knowledge to directly reconstruct Ediacaran-early Cambrian paleogeography for the first time. EPIC will thus transform one of geophysics most outstanding enigmas into one of our greatest assets in understanding this critical time in Earths development.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
- humanities history and archaeology history ancient history
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geophysics
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences physical geography glaciology
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2021-COG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
0313 Oslo
Norway
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.