Lawrence Percival

I am interested in how major changes in Earth’s climate and environment, that share similarities with those happening today, have taken place in the past. My particular focus is how these climate and environmental changes were caused by and/or caused disruption in Earth’s carbon cycle, and their link to massive episodes of volcanic activity related to Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs), which they often coincided with. These links can be tested by analysing the geochemistry of sedimentary rocks deposited at the bottom of seas, lakes, or rivers in Earth’s past, measuring the concentration and isotopic composition of elements such as mercury and osmium to trace LIP volcanic activity, alongside a range of other techniques to investigate the environmental changes themselves (e.g., carbon isotopes, metal concentrations etc.). My current research focus is on Oceanic Plateaus, examples of LIPs that formed mainly through submarine volcanism, when they formed, and how exactly they impacted Earth’s environment, compared to the better known continental igneous provinces. This work is being funded by the ERC through the Starting Grant SEA-VOLC. Additionally, I am interested in a range of other related topics, including tracing emissions of volcanic carbon through the atmosphere, and constraining the different ways in which LIPs influenced the carbon cycle to sometimes cause climate warming events, and sometimes climate cooling.