Mariia Netsyk and Thomas Stevens awarded 2 227 277 kr from “MSCA-for Ukraine 2023 Vetenskapsrådet”

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Photo: Thomas Stevens, Sidmouth, UK: Middle Triassic alternating red to green-grey silty mudstones showing shifts in hothouse desert hydroclimate.

Mariia Netsyk and Thomas Stevens awarded 2 227 277 kr from “MSCA-for Ukraine 2023 Vetenskapsrådet” for a 2-yr research project Permo-Triassic hothouse climate variability: the record from mudstone of southern Britain

During the late Permian and Triassic (c. 255-200 million years ago) the world was characterized by intense heat and vast dusty deserts, and experienced two of the largest mass extinctions ever recorded. However, the detail of climate variability and its causes in this extreme hothouse world are poorly known. The project supports a two-year position for Mariia to work on the Permo-Triassic desert mudstone rocks exposed along the southwest of coast of England. These rocks formed in hyper-arid deserts at the centre of the Pangaean supercontinent, and reveal a scorching, dusty, and inhospitable environment. We will investigate various properties of these rocks in order to reconstruct changes in aridity and dustiness, providing us new insight into this remarkable world, and how climate changes were driven at the dawn of the dinosaurs.