Elias Rugen

Elias is a PhD student in the Department of Earth Sciences at UCL. His PhD project is titled: Understanding Earth’s carbon cycle through the Proterozoic. The project will aim to address questions such as: 1) What were the dominant geological and/or biological drivers for the major carbon isotope excursions during the Proterozoic?

2) Did environmental factors, such as oxygen levels, hinder the emergence and diversification of complex life?; and 3) Was the Mesoproterozoic a time of carbon isotope stability and thus Earth system stasis? This research will result in a seawater carbon isotope curve for the Proterozoic that can be used for constraining ages for sedimentary successions that lack radiometric dating capabilities and/or age diagnostic fossils.