PhD: The early Palaeozoic evolution of Vietnam

Project Highlights:

Extensive fieldwork in a unique and geologically unexplored part of Vietnam
Collaboration with an international team of geologists including laboratory work in Japan
Analysis of a range of different micro and macrofossil groups utilising multiple techniques

This project follows in the footsteps of the French Indochinese Geological Survey, who in the first decades of the 20th century discovered many new Palaeozoic fossils in northern Vietnam and southern China. Later, Vietnamese mapping geologists worked systematically through this region in the 1970s. These surveys and subsequent work identified a rich early Palaeozoic history for northern Vietnam that is geologically linked to southern China, both regions once forming part of the ancient South China palaeocontinent. Across the border in China, the discovery of exceptionally preserved fossils in the 1980s led to a renaissance in the study of the Palaeozoic rocks of Yunnan Province. In contrast, large regions of Vietnam have yet to be explored in detail. This project focuses on the lower Palaeozoic rocks of NE Vietnam, which yield rich and newly identified assemblages of shelly and graptolitic faunas. You will use these assemblages in tandem with an understanding of the sedimentary and geotectonic setting to establish the first integrated stratigraphy of this region, working with Vietnamese geologists to map the regional distribution and lithofacies changes through the lower Palaeozoic. You will establish the position of major stratigraphical boundaries, including the Ordovician-Silurian boundary and its associated palaeoenvironmental events. Your work will develop a model for analysing the extensive and widespread Palaeozoic strata of northern and central Vietnam. The project forms part of an ongoing collaboration between Vietnamese, Japanese and UK geologists, and would involve two seasons of fieldwork in northern Vietnam, collaboration with Vietnamese institutions in Hanoi, and a period of laboratory work at Kumamoto University in Japan. You will be become an expert on the lower Palaeozoic geology of SE Asia and have widely transferable skills in organising fieldwork in remote areas, relaying your science to the public, biostratigraphy, palaeontological analysis, geological mapping and problem solving.