Jan Veizer

Ján Veizer ( * 1941 in Slovakia) is Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Ottawa. He also worked at the Institute of Geology, Mineralogy and Geophysics, Ruhr University Bochum. He held up the 2004 NSERC / Noranda / CIFAR Industrial Chair in Geosystemisotopen and environmental geochemistry. He was honored as Isotopengeochemiker. His research focus was the application of chemical and isotopic techniques for determining the history of Earth's climate and other environmental conditions.

Veizer awarded the 1986 Killam Award, 1987 WW Hutchison Medal for young researchers who had made exceptional progress in the Canadian Geoscience, 1991, the Willet G. Miller Medal, for exceptional contributions to geology, the 1992 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, which is endowed with EUR 1.55 million for research into the geochemistry of sediments, 1995 the Logan Medal, which is the highest honor of the Geological Association of Canada, and in 2000 the Bancroft Award for contributions to the popularization of geoscientific issues.

During his career Veizer has more than 4500 measurements of oxygen isotopes in calcite and aragonite shells collected to build climate and sediment data for the entire Phanerozoic, based on the surface temperatures of the tropical sea.

Controversy about the influence of cosmic rays on climate change

Together with other scientists compared Veizer the reconstructed historical sea water temperatures over the last 545 million years with the variability of cosmic radiation reaching the earth and the historic CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.

After a carefully worded article in Nature in 2000, which he co-authored with Yves Godderis and Louis M. François, the results can be reconciled if the CO2 concentration are not the main driver of climate change in geologically relevant time periods in Earth's atmosphere, at least for one third of the Phanerozoic period, unless the reconstructed CO2 concentrations were not reliable.

Veizer 2003 published along with the Israeli astrophysicist Nir Shaviv J. an article in the journal Geological Society of America. This Veizer confirmed a reduced ( truncated ) Influence of CO2 on climate change and writes of cosmic rays on greater importance. Although the mechanism is not yet fully understood, the empirical data showed a suitable match. The article was strongly criticized, among others by representatives of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Veizer and Shaviv stressed the applicability of their research in today's climate as well as their respect for researchers who are on the line of the IPCC. Veizer and Shaviv as a value for the climate sensitivity has a value of 1.5 ° C; however, the IPCC holds values ​​between 2 and 4,5 ° for likely with a best estimate of 3 °.

Selected Publications

  • Ján Veizer and Hoefs, Jochen: The nature of O18/O16 and C13/C12 secular trends in sedimentary carbonate rocks. In: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 40, No. 11, November 1976, pp. 1387-1395, doi: 10.1016/0016-7037 (76 ) 90129-0.
  • J. Veizer and SL Jansen: Basement and sedimentary recycling and continental evolution. In: Journal of Geology. 87, 1979, pp. 341-370.
  • Uwe Brand and Ján Veizer: Chemical diagenesis of a multi- component carbonate system; 1, trace elements. In: Journal of Sedimentary Research. 50, No. 4, December 1980, pp. 1219-1236, doi: 10.1306/212F7BB7-2B24-11D7-8648000102C1865D.
  • Ján Veizer: Trace elements and isotopes in sedimentary carbonates. In: Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry. 11, No. 1, January 1983, pp. 265-299.
  • Ján Veizer et al. 87Sr/86Sr, δ13C and δ18O evolution of Phanerozoic seawater. In: Chemical Geology. 161, September 30, 1999, pp. 59-88, doi: 10.1016/S0009-2541 (99 ) 00081-9.
  • Ján Veizer, Yves Godderis and Louis M. François: Evidence for decoupling of atmospheric CO2 and global climate falling on the Phanerozoic eon. In: Nature. 408 7 December 2000, pp. 698-701, doi: 10.1038/35047044.
  • Ján Veizer: Celestial Climate Driver: A Perspective from Four Billion Years of the Carbon Cycle. In: Geoscience Canada. 32, No. 1, 2005.
  • K. Scherer et al.: Interstellar -Terrestrial Relations: Variable Cosmic Environments, The Dynamic Heliosphere, and Their Imprints on Terrestrial Archives and Climate. In: Space Science Reviews. 127, No. 1-4, December 2006, pp. 327-465, doi: 10.1007/s11214-006-9126-6.
  • Ján Veizer and Paul R. Ferguson: Coupling of water and carbon fluxes via the terrestrial biosphere and its Significance to the Earth 's climate System. In: Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres. 112, No. D24, December 20, 2007, doi: 10.1029/2007JD008431.
  • Christoph Korte, Peter J. Jones, Uwe Brand, Dorothee Mertmann and Ján Veizer: Oxygen isotope values ​​from high - latitudes: Clues for Permian sea- surface temperature gradients and Late Palaeozoic deglaciation. In: palaeogeography, Paleoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 269, No. 1-2, November 4, 2008, pp. 1-16, doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.06.012.
  • Nir J. Shaviv, Ján Veizer Celestial driver of Phanerozoic climate? (PDF, 466 kB). In: GSA Today. 13, No. 7, 2003, pp. 1-16, doi: 10.1130/1052-5173 (2003) 013 < 0004: CDOPC > 2.0.CO; 2
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