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Research Interests

My research activity can be grouped into three broadly overlapping strands.

Mass extinctions: I have been investigating the cause of the end-Permian mass extinction since 1989 using a combination of facies, geochemical and palaeoecological analysis undertaken on marine sections from numerous locations (e.g. Italy, USA, Canada, Spitsbergen, Greenland, China, Tibet, Pakistan). Discoveries to date include the discovery of a severe oceanic anoxic event coincident with the mass extinction and the fact that sea-level was rising rapidly at the level of extinction, not falling as previously thought. I am also investigating the end-Triassic and, most recently, the Late Devonian mass extinctions.

Black shales: The diagnosis of black shale depositional conditions and the sequence stratigraphic occurrence of such conditions has also attracted my interest. The former has mostly been achieved through a mutlidisciplinary approach by combining palaeoecological and geochemical criteria (such as uranium concentrations) and, most recently, the size-frequency distribution of framboids.

Carboniferous basin history: I have a long standing interest in the evolution of Carboniferous basins in Ireland, England and western Europe, particularly the distribution of source rock facies. Recent work has focussed on the Western Irish Namurian Basin and the condensed chert facies of the German Dinantian.

Publications
I have published over 60 papers in academic journals and two books.

Wignall, P.B. (1994) Black shales. Geology and Geophysics Monographs, 30. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 130pp.

Hallam, A. and Wignall, P.B. (1997) Mass extinctions and their aftermath. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 330pp.

For a full publication list click here.