Ulf Söderlund

Together with scientists from Canada I coordinate an international project called Reconstruction of Supercontinents Back To 2.7 Ga Using The Large Igneous Province (LIP) Record, With Implications For Mineral Deposit Targeting, Hydrocarbon Resource Exploration, and Earth System Evolution. The project is funded by industry and NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) with the rational to reconstruct the position of continents in the past. Dating of regional dyke swarms and other components of Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) provides a so called magmatic barcode. Continents that share identical codes indicate a next neighbour situation in the time interval matches are identified. Vi have developed a special technique for extraction of baddeleyite, the key mineral for dating the emplacement of igneous mafic rocks. Scientists from numerous countries have visited our mineral separation laboratory for training in our technique. Together with PhD- and MSc-students we conduct research in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Brazil, India, west Afrika and Greenland (NAC). See www.supercontinent.org for further information.

I am also interested in the development of new chronometers and to test their prospectives on various geological materials. I am particularly interested in chronostratigraphy and biostratigraphy correlations. From studies of fossils and sediments we could learn how life evolved and environmental conditions varied over time. There are also memories of sudden events, e.g. volcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, glaciation events etc., of which some led to mass extinctions. My results may contribute to a better understanding of how fast and often these processes occurred in the Earth’s history.

Publication list from Google scholar