Mikael Calner

Selected Field Activities

• April 2024: Research visit to NIGPAS, Nanjing for collaboration and for field excursion to the Cambrian and Ordovician of the Anhui and Zhejiang provinces, including the base Darriwilian and base Jiangshanian GSSPs. Below: Between tea plants and mid-Ordovician orthoceratite limestone in southern Anhui province.

• May 2023: Fieldwork in the Ordovician and Silurian of the Arbuckle Mountains, Oklahoma, including a visit to the core repository in Norman for sample collection. Below: Field area along the classical Highway 77 outcrops.

• October 2022: Drilling of the Lusklint core (Llandovery-Wenlock transition) on Gotland, with Riksriggen (Crafoord Foundation). 
• July 2022: COSC-2 deep drilling core study at BGR, Berlin.

• .May 2020: Fieldwork Kinnekulle.
• March 2019: Research visit at NIGPAS, Nanjing, and fieldwork in the Ordovician of Hubei (Yichang area). Tremadocian Limestone south of Daping.
• August-Novemebr 2018: Sabbathical at Department of Geology, University of Lisbon. Fieldwork in the Ordovician-Silurian transition along Ceira River. 
• June 2017: Field work for MSc thesis in the lower Cambrian sandstones of Kinnekulle Table Mountain, central Sweden. Well preserved trace fossils!
• May 2017: Field work for  BSc and MSc theses in the late Precambrian Visingsö Group.
• November 2016: Research visit at NIGPAS, Nanjing.
• May 2016: Deep drilling through Cambrian-Ordovician at Kinnekulle with Riksriggen. Information for media in Swedish. 
• February 2016: Initial field work in New Providence and Andros Island on Quaternary carbonates. Photo shows large-scale cross-bedding in Holocene carbonate sand dune in New Providence.
• January 2016: Reconnaissance for deep drilling at Kinnekulle. Proposed drill site at Högkullen.
• August 2015: Deep coring through Silurian strata on Gotland, in collaboration with University of Iowa, and by means of new LU infrastructure Riksriggen. More info in Swedish. The crew! Broadcasted on Swedish Radio P4
• June 2015: Completing carbon isotope sampling campaign in Oslo region. Sitting on the Ordovician-Silurian boundary.
• May 2015: Reconnaissance trip to Gotland to prepare for deep drilling. Studying Silurian reef limestone at Högklint.
• June 2014: Fieldwork and experience tour to classical Silurian localities of England and Wales.
• May and August 2014: Field work in the Oslo-Asker district of southern Norway. Studying the Norwegian stratotype for the Ordovician-Silurian boundary, where the stratigraphy is upside-down!
• June 2013: Chair of the IGCP 591 annual meeting in Lund. Regional excursion with one at the first stops at Rövarekulan locality to discuss Silurian shale fill of the Colonus Shale Trough. Field trip guide book to Palaeozoic outcrops of southern Sweden and Norway available here.

Calner Lab Drillcore Archive

A series of external grants have helped to recover more than 1.000 metres of stratigraphy from the Lower Palaeozoic of southern Sweden. These core sections are available in Lund for sampling for joint collaborations.

• Lusklint drillcore (2022): Llandovery-Wenlock, Gotland (Ireviken Event) (Crafoord Foundation grant 20220567)
• Kinnekulle drillcore (2016): Cambrian, Ordovician and basal Silurian of the Kinnekulle table mountain (Crafoord Foundation grant 20140806 and the Royal Physiographic Society)
• Altajme drillcore (2015): Llandovery and Wenlock of Gotland (NSF PI B. Cramer)
• Tingskullen drillcore (2010): Ordovician of Öland (GOBE) (Crafoord Foundation grant 20080860)
• Borenshult drillcore (2007): Ordovician of Östergötland (LOME) (Crafoord Foundation grant 20050748)
• Hunninge-1 drillcore (2004): Late Wenlock of Gotland (Mulde Event) (Crafoord Foundation grant 20030673)
• Lindeberget-1 drillcore (2004): Early Ludlow of Gotland (Linde Event) (Crafoord Foundation grant 20030673)
• Burgen-1 drillcore (2003): Ludlow of Gotland (Lau Event) (Swedish Research Council)
• Ronehamn-1 drillcore (2003): Ludlow of Gotland (Lau Event) (Swedish Research Council)
• Uddvide-1 drillcore (2003): Ludlow of Gotland (Lau Event) (Swedish Research Council)
• Ottenby drillcore (unknown year): Middle Cambrian Bårstad and Äleklinta members (Borgholm Formation), 10 boxes, excellent condition.

Research projects

I am a specialist in depositional system analysis, sedimentary geology, sequence stratigraphy, and palaeoecology, and utilise fossil sediments and geochemistry to study the interplay of global change in climate, sea-level and biodiversity (minor and mass extinctions).

I work in particular with the Lower Palaeozoic sedimentary cover of the Baltic Shield with comparison to remote basins, in particular in North America and the South China Plate, but also in peri-Gondwana terrains such as the Iberian peninsula. Main lines of research concentrates on time intervals of major global change, in particular the Global Ordovician Biodiversity Event (GOBE), the end-Ordovician glaciation and mass extinction, and the series of minor extinction events in the Silurian. I have particular interest in the environmental drivers during these events.   

In modern carbonate sedimentology I focus on the the anatomy and mineralogy of recent and sub-recent ooids in the Bahamas complex and utilize synchrotron light FE-SEM and LA-ICP-MS to characterize the microworld and geochemistry of ooids. This project also aims to reveal the oceanographic and ecological significance of widespread calcareous oolites that developed in the aftermath of some of the mass extinctions in Earth history.

Teaching

My teaching focuses on sedimentary processes and products on wide spatial and temporal scales – from river systems and deserts in the continental interiors to the pelagic rain in the deep ocean, and from the Precambrian to the recent (e.g. BSc-level GEOB32, GEOB33). Students learn to identify ancient depositional environments through facies analysis and also to study how these systems evolved through time by means of sequence stratigraphy – in carbonate as well as clastic or mixed basins (MSc-level GEOM12). Since my research background mainly is within carbonate rocks, palaeoecology and palaeontology is a natural and well integrated part of my teaching. Most of my exercises and field excursions are based on either the 'old' marine Cambro-Devonian Baltoscandian basin of south-eastern Scandinavia or the eastern segments of the 'young' marine-continental Mesozoic Danish basin to the southwest. At the BSc-evel I also teach more applied geology, in particular about fossil fuels, including petroleum geology, coal deposits and carbon dioxide storage, and importantly, about the societal challenges associated with this industry. From 2023 I have expanded my teaching to include the public, in an online course centered on the bedrock geology of Sweden (MNXG02). In the Calner Lab Drillcore Archive in Lund I have assembled a little more than 1.000 metres of Palaeozoic intracratonic stratigraphy from Gotland, Öland, Östergötland and Västergötland provinces. These cores are central to my research on Swedish stratigraphy and, when possible, also used in my teaching.

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