Zheyu Tian

“Exploring fossil records to understand the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian boundary on the North China craton ”

PhD project title:

Understanding the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian boundary on the North China craton.

Project description:

This project aims to improve understanding of the relationship between climate change, the carbon cycle and bio-evolutionary events in Earth history, especially during the Neoproterozoic. During that time, the Earth experienced at least two global glaciations, the evolution and radiation of complex multicellular organisms, changing redox balance in the oceans and atmosphere and huge perturbations to the carbon cycle.

The North China craton possesses one of the world’s best fossil records of the Tonian Period and evidence for later glaciation, while at the same time being among one of the least studied areas of this age. The proposed project aims to study the sedimentology and isotope geochemistry of the uppermost Neoproterozoic strata on the North China craton to establish their age, stratigraphic correlation and relationship to these global-scale events.

This study is funded by the China Scholarships Council (CSC) - UCL studentship award.