Basin, Environment, and straTigraphY Laboratory — BETY Lab
Dr. Ricardo Silva

The Basin, Environment, and straTigraphY Laboratory — BETY Lab — focuses on the physical, chemical, and biological controls on the production and preservation of organic matter and the role of organic productivity in modulating Earth system processes at geological time scales. As the group leader, Dr. Silva is particularly interested in understanding the complex chain of events, processes, and feedback mechanisms leading to the so-called oceanic anoxic events (OAEs), i.e. brief intervals in the geological history when significant portions of the oceans were deoxygenated. OAEs are associated with enhanced geological sequestration of organic matter and large perturbations of several element cycles, climatic and environmental extremes, biotic disruptions, and mass extinctions.  

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Before joining the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Manitoba as an Assistant Professor in Sedimentology in January of 2022, Dr. Silva held postdoctoral appointments at the Camborne School of Mines (The University of Exeter), Trinity College Dublin, and Dalhousie University. He graduated in 2013 with a PhD in Geology (summa cum laude) from the University of Coimbra (Portugal), where he also completed my BSc in 2008.