Thomas Gernon, University of Southampton
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Abstract:
Earth’s long-term climate is governed by competing processes across the solid Earth, oceans, atmosphere, and biosphere. Decoding this complex record of interactions—‘nature’s experiments’—reveals how large-scale feedbacks have regulated climate and sustained habitability, while also helping understand the dynamics of future change. Volcanic outgassing, silicate weathering, mountain building, and continental reorganization all affect atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, yet these drivers rarely act alone. Instead, they interact on multimillion-year timescales, combining to drive periodic transitions between warm (greenhouse) and cold (icehouse) states. At times, rapid weathering of volcanic arcs has stabilized surface temperatures; at others, multiple solid-Earth cooling mechanisms have combined to trigger prolonged glaciation. Conversely, episodes of continental breakup have driven pulses of chemical weathering and nutrient delivery to the oceans, amplifying biological productivity and driving widespread marine anoxia. In this talk, Dr Gernon will show how long-term climate trajectories emerge from the confluence of feedbacks linking Earth’s dynamic deep interior and surface systems.
Bio:
Thomas Gernon is Professor of Earth Science at the University of Southampton, based at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre, and Visiting Professor at the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany. His research focuses on the dynamic interactions between Earth’s interior, surface, and climate systems over geologic time. His work also addresses extreme climate states, including “Snowball Earth” glaciations, and the coupling between solid Earth, climatic and biological processes. Gernon directs the Earth Intelligence Laboratory (EILAB), which develops interdisciplinary approaches to decode Earth system evolution and its implications for climate and sustainability. He has published widely in journals including Nature, Science, PNAS, and Nature Geoscience, and is best known for his discovery of “mantle waves”—deep Earth phenomena that reshape continents and influence ocean chemistry, biology, and climate. This discovery was a finalist for Science magazine’s “Breakthrough of the Year” in 2024. His work has featured regularly in The New York Times, Scientific American, The Guardian, The Times, and the BBC.