The 64th Annual IGRM hosted by Geological Survey Ireland
The Department of Geography at Mary Immaculate College is delighted to host the 64th Irish Geological Research Meeting – the first time the college has hosted the IGRM, and due to the unique circumstances, the first time the IGRM will be held online.
This year's meeting will be held over Microsoft Teams, on Thursday 25th and Friday 26th February. Speakers will deliver oral presentations over Teams, with all presentations live-streamed, and an online chat function for discussion and questions. Posters will be hosted online on the conference website.
Registration and abstract submission is now open at the following link: https://forms.gle/UrjfcCYE7fb1Q8UN7
The conference website will be live in the coming days, and will be updated with all details. Registrants will be emailed the details of all sessions.
Keynote address:
We are also delighted to announce our keynote lecture at 7pm on Thursday 25th February, will be given by Paul F. Hoffman of the School of Earth & Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada. Formerly Professor of Geology at Harvard University, Paul is best known for his work on the Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth hypothesis.
On the freshwater ancestry of marine primary producers: a snowball Earth legacy and implications for the pre-Cryogenian marine fossil record
Molecular phylogenomic ancestral-state reconstruction suggests that many modern marine primary producers evolved in freshwater over most of their evolutionary history. This is surprising in view of the marine fossil record of cyanobacteria and algae back to at least 2.02 and 1.04 billion years ago, respectively. We can reconcile this apparent conflict by assuming that all modern organisms are derived from the survivors of Cryogenian snowball Earths, when phototrophy was limited to supraglacial meltwaters, meromictic ice-covered lakes, and certain hot springs. This suggests that most pre-Cryogenian marine fossils represent stem groups, lacking direct descendants in living taxa.