Processes of planetary environmental changes

Keywords: Changements environnementaux, intérieur de la Terre, enveloppes fluides, systèmes complexes
Prerequisites: no

The Earth is experiencing great environmental changes since the industrial era. The climate is changing, but so is the chemistry of soils, the ocean or sedimentary fluxes. Our planet has already experienced environmental upheavals since its formation, at slower and diverse rhythms. It is the same for planets: Mars was hot and covered with an ocean and is today cold and dry. This course proposes to study the processes at work during major planetary changes in the form of 4 different projects through the semester, which can be for example the Archean-Proterozoic transition with the oxygenation of the atmosphere, the snowball Earth, the Eocene-Paleocene thermal maximum.

This teaching develops various geoscience skills, and aims at dealing with complex systems where different objects are linked (the Earth’s interior, oceans, atmosphere, life). Students will work with both models and observations. The project approach aims to develop research and collaborative work skills.