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Invitation to the Media - Environmental Catastrophe Hits London

August 07, 2002

A major interdisciplinary conference on environmental catastrophes in the recent geological past will be held at Brunel University from 28 August to 2 September 2002. All media are welcome to attend, by prior arrangement with the Conference Organiser (see Further Information). Although the Conference is being promoted by the Geological Society of London, its organisation is separate from the Society and all media enquiries must be made to Dr Iain Stewart.

The five-day conference will bring together Quaternary geologists, biologists, archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and economists to examine geologically recent catastrophes, their effect on society, history and mythology, and how such events might affect the modern world were they to happen now. The Conference will present the subject in five sessions:

Geological catastrophes and their impact on society e.g. meteorite impacts, giant landslides, great earthquakes, megatsunamis, supervolcanic eruptions

Environmental causes of past civilization collapse, e.g. collapse in Ancient Egypt

Health catastrophes: environmental triggering of epidemics, plague, haemorrhagic fever etc.

Climatological impacts on society, e.g. historical droughts

Ecological catastrophes: extinctions, human impacts on biodiversity loss

Abstracts for the meeting are available now on the conference web site (see Further Information). Media advisory notices focusing on particular themes will be distributed next week, including direct speaker contact information wherever available. The organisers wish to embargo coverage of speakers' papers for date and time of delivery.

Geological Society of London, The