Wednesday, October 3 @ 8 PM:
A Cataclysmic Evening: Super-volcanoes and Killer Asteroids

Geologist and NASA researcher Michael Rampino lectures on “Mass Extinctions and the History of Life”

As chronicled in the fossil record, the history of life is marked by violent and devastating episodes. Mass extinctions—the eradication of 75 to 95 percent of Earth’s species—have repeatedly altered the course of evolution. Michael Rampino has searched six continents for the causes of these ancient mega-events, investigating asteroid impacts and large-scale volcanism.

A biologist and geologist at New York University and research associate at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Dr. Rampino asks: Why was 95 percent of ocean life wiped out 250 million years ago? Was human evolution influenced by the eruption of a super-volcano? Who benefits from mass extinctions? (Answer: Not dinosaurs.)