This project is to study Devonian-aged strata in the Canning basin, Western Australia, for evidence linking short term global warming to the known mass extinction occurring during the late part of this geological period. The work will entail a month of field collecting and museum study, followed by intensive laboratory analyses that will examine the stable isotopes of carbon, oxygen, and sulfur. This latter work will be the basis of a graduate student thesis at the University of Washington. The goals of the project are to test various hypotheses relating to extinction mechanism, and to see if any of the ancient processes can be related to modern day atmospheric or global oceanic changes.
