Educación Continua IGL

Curso

Procesos litosféricos

History of the Earth and Mass Extinction Events

Instituto de Geología, UNAM

Earth’s 4.54-billion-year history is punctuated by mass extinctions that repeatedly reset the planet’s ecosystems. They represent episodes of profound ecological disruption and long-term reorganization of the biosphere, and occupy a central place in contemporary Earth-science research. As such, they reflect periods when fundamental Earth-system processes operated beyond stable limits, revealing the intrinsic sensitivity of life to environmental change at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Despite sustained scientific attention, major challenges persist in the study of mass extinctions. Their causes are rarely singular, and their stratigraphic expressions are often complex, diachronous, and incomplete. Interpreting these events requires addressing uncertainties related to temporal resolution, proxy reliability, and the interaction between tectonic, climatic, oceanographic, and biological processes. A comprehensive and critical perspective is therefore essential for advancing robust interpretations. This webinar offers a concise, evidence-based journey from the origins of life and the Cambrian diversification through the “Big Five” and into the Anthropocene—asking not just what happened, but why. By integrating stratigraphy, paleontology, geochemistry, and plate tectonics, leading hypotheses will be evaluated and their signatures traced across the Earth system.

The importance of this topic is particularly evident in the context of current global change. Accelerated climate warming, biodiversity loss, ocean deoxygenation, and widespread human modification of natural systems have raised fundamental questions about planetary resilience and the potential for large-scale biotic disruption. Deep-time mass extinctions provide a unique reference framework for assessing the magnitude, rates, and consequences of such changes, allowing present-day processes to be evaluated within a broader geological perspective.

OBJECTIVE

To provide participants with a solid and integrated framework for understanding the history of life on Earth, evolutionary processes, and the nature of mass extinction events through deep time.
To evaluate mass extinctions as Earth-system phenomena, emphasizing the interactions among the lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere.
To establish robust links between ancient extinction events and current global environmental change, allowing participants to assess the relevance of deep-time analogues for understanding ongoing climate warming and biodiversity loss.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS AT THE END OF THE ACTIVITY

At the end of the of the webinar, the participant:

Understand the geologic time scale and the role of plate tectonics in shaping Earth’s history.
Know the principal causes and consequences of the major mass-extinction events.
Connect past extinction dynamics to present-day climate change and biodiversity loss.

PARTICIPANT PROFILE
Students, academics, and professionals in the Earth Sciences interested in the topic. The webinar will be most beneficial for participants with basic knowledge of stratigraphy and paleontology, as well as and a foundational understanding of the geologic time scale and plate tectonics. A good understanding of spoken English is required.

OBTAINING CERTIFICATE

A certificate of attendance will be issued only to participants who attend at least 90% of the sessions.

1. Introduction (2 h)
1.1 History and methods (litho-, bio-chrono-stratigraphy)
1.2 Evolutive paleontology and micropaleontology: short overview of life evolution
1.3 History of life and mass extinctions events: introduction, evolutive paleontology, causes and mechanisms

2. Origins of life and Early Paleozoic Crises (2 h)
2.1 The origin of life
2.2 Precambrian life
2.3 The Cambrian

3. The big five mass extinctions: causes, mechanisms and consequences (12 h)
3.1 The End-Ordovician mass extinction
3.2 The End Devonian mass extinction
3.3 The mother of the mass extinctions, Permian-Triassic mass extinction
3.4 The End-Triassic mass extinction
3.5 The Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction

4. From PETM to the Anthropocene: Proxies and the “Sixth Extinction” (2 h
4.1 The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal maximum (PETM): the best analog for the actual warming? examples from Europe, Egypt, and India
4.2 Anthropocene: stratigraphical basis, paleontological evidence and geochemical proxies
4.3 The sixth mass extinction of species

Recommended bibliographical references:

Algeo, T.J., Shen, J., 2024, Theory and classification of mass extinction causation: National Science Review, 11(1), 1-21.
Erwin, D.H., 2006. Extinction: How Life on Earth Nearly Ended 250 million years ago: Princeton University Press, 296 p.
Ernst, R.E., Bond, D.P.G., Zhang, S.-H., Buchan, K.L., Grasby, S.E., Youbi, N., El Bilali, H., Bekker, A., Doucet, L., 2021, Large Igneous Province record through time and implications for secular environmental changes and geological time-scale boundaries, in: Ernst, R.E., Dickson, A.J., Bekker, A. (Eds.), Large Igneous Provinces: A Driver of Global Environmental and Biotic Changes, AGU Geophysical Monograph, 3-26.
Keller, G., Kerr, A.C., 2014, Volcanism, Impacts, and Mass Extinctions: Causes and Effects (Vol. 505): Geological Society of America. 491 p.
Wignall, P.B., 2015, The Worst of Times, How life on Earth Survived Eighty Million Years of Extinctions: Princeton University Press, 199 p.
Zalasiewicz, J., Head, M.J., Waters, C.N., Turner, S.D., Haff, P.K., Summerhayes, C., Williams, M., Cearreta, A., Wagreich, M., Fairchild, I., Rose, N.L., Saito, Y., Leinfelder, R., Fiałkiewicz-Kozieł, B., An, Z., Syvitski, J., Gałuszka, A., McCarthy, F.M.G., Ivar do Sul, J., Barnosky, A., Cundy, A.B., McNeill, J.R., Zinke, J., 2024, The Anthropocene within the Geological Time Scale: a response to fundamental questions: Episodes, 47(1), 65-83.

Dr. Thierry Adatte
Institut des Sciences de la Terre, Université de Lausanne

Nivel Intermedio

18 hrs
Monday to Thursday. 8:00 to 10:15 a.m. Mexico City time

23 feb 2026 al 05 mar 2026
Ver calendario

Online Zoom

Cupo: Sin número específico de participantes

4 topics

FECHA LÍMITE DE REGISTRO 20 DE FEBRERO 2026, 16:00 HORAS

Pre-register now