Proceedings with Program and Abstracts: Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy and IGCP 652 Reading Geologic Time in Paleozoic Sedimentary Rocks - BAP #411
The International Union of Geosciences (IUGS) features the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), which is composed of subcommissions on individual systems and the Precambrian that build the formal, officially, and internationally defined time units (chronostratigraphic units) of Earth History. The Subcommision on Devonian Stratigraphy has been one of the most active subcommissions of the ICS since it formed in 1973, which is mostly based on a highly successful integration of all leading specialists of Devonian stratigraphy, regardless of their specialization or their origin.
The IGCP is a cooperative enterprise of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and has been stimulating comparative studies in the Earth Sciences since 1972. After three decades of successful work, the “International Geological Correlation Programme” continued, as “International Geoscience Programme.” To this day, IGCP has made research results available to a huge number of scientists around the world with ~400 projects. The thesis of IGCP 652 is that major events punctuated the Paleozoic, such as ecological crises and diversifications, shifts in ocean chemistry, and climatic changes. One of the key obstacles in understanding these events is the difficulty of providing precise estimates of the duration represented by a sequence of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. This lack of temporal precision severely hampers the evaluation of forcing mechanisms and rates of climatic, ecological, or biogeochemical changes. It is therefore essential to first improve the Paleozoic timescale to then unravel the history of the Paleozoic Earth system.
New York State has been the focus of Devonian studies for over 200 years. The year 2023 marks the 200th anniversary of several publications by Amos Eaton (and Eaton and Beck) that described the geology of Albany County as well as the lands between the Susquehanna and Hudson rivers. It is fitting that the SDS recognize and celebrate this with a return to New York and the type Devonian of North America.
Edited by D. Jeffrey Over
Pages: 140
Issue: BAP 411
Year published: 2024