ANU Public lecture: Target earth: the asteroid impact history of Australia - Dr Andrew Glikson. This video was recorded at The Australian National University on 14 July 2010 and presented as part of the ANU Alumni Research Series.
In this lecture, Dr Andrew Glikson discusses how large asteroid collisions have driven the evolution of Earth's crust and how these impacts link to mass extinction events. The origin of several major episodes of volcanism, faulting, climate changes and extinctions can be traced to asteroids collisions with Earth. Australia has an excellent record of asteroid impacts dating back to the beginnings of Earth's formation. Recent discoveries of large impact structures in Western Australia, including 359 million year old and 120km wide Woodleigh, 75km wide Gnargoo and 50km wide Mount Ashmore have shed light on the origin of past mass extinctions and climate changes.
Dr Glikson is a Visiting Fellow with the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Planetary Science Institute and Climate Change Institute. Dr Glikson graduated from the University of Western Australia and since graduation, has held positions as a Principal Research Scientist at Geoscience Australia, conducted extensive geological surveys in outback Australia, specialised in studies of the early Earth, the effects of asteroid and comets on terrestrial evolution and the origin of mass extinction of species. More recently, Dr Glikson has been studying the effects of climate on human evolution.
The ANU Alumni Research Series is a program of public lectures aimed to showcase current and major research achievements from The Australian National University. The series is hosted by the ANU Alumni office and features researchers from across all disciplines of the University.
