Using Central Arctic Ocean and Norwegian-Greenland Sea Sediments as Recorders of High Canadian Arctic Climate During the Pleistocene

全球气候变化影响极地地区，特别是 北极，在不成比例的大的方式，生产大量的 陆地和海洋冰盖范围的变化， 冰和海洋温度。 这些变化不仅 发生在地质年代，但被认为发生在很长一段时间内， 响应于变化的二氧化碳含量的较短时间尺度 of theatmosphere大气，as an example例. 了解主要冰盖对气候变化的响应 这是我们的主要目标之一， 海洋古环境研究 这种理解是基于 对该地区沉积历史的详细研究， 包括古代和现代沉积物路径的位置， 从高质量的紧密间隔的样品的检查 沉积岩芯，以及环境事件的区域相关性。 本项目将应用这些技术研究 北方更新世冰的衰变和时间 床单。 加拿大北极高地的冰川消退是相当投机的 在这个时候。 已经提出的假设范围从 从无冰区到被因努伊特冰盖覆盖， 与格陵兰冰盖向东融合， 劳伦提斯冰原向南。 解决这个问题的关键 在于确定一种示踪剂， 前进和后退的过程。 该项目将 检查高粗粒级丰度的出现， 沉积物样品（指示一般冰川消退） 富含高岭石层（表明伊丽莎白女王群岛 sourceregion）。 详细的碳-14分析计划将提供 精确的时间尺度。

Global climatic changes affect polar regions, specifically the arctic,in disproportionately large ways, producing substantial variations inthe extent of terrestrial and marine ice sheets, of sea ice, and ofocean temperatures. These variations have not only occurred overgeologic time scales, but are thought to occur over much shorter timescales in response to the varying carbon dioxide content of theatmosphere, as an example. Understanding the responses of major ice sheets to the climaticchanges that have occurred is one of the primary objectives of marinepaleoenvironmental research. Such understanding is based on thedetailed study of the sedimentation history of the region, whichincludes the location of ancient and modern sediment pathways, theexamination of closely spaced samples from high quality sedimentcores, and the regional correlation of environmental events. This project will apply these techniques in a study of the extent andtiming of the decay of the northern hemisphere pleistocene ice sheet. The deglaciation of the high Canadian Arctic is quite speculative atthis time. Hypotheses that have been advanced range from the areabeing ice-free to being covered by the Innuitian Ice Sheet which hadmerged with the Greenland Ice Sheet to the east, and the LaurentideIce Sheet to the south. The key to resolving this question lies inidentifying a tracer that may be unambiguously related to advances andretreats of an actual ice sheet. This project will examine theoccurrences of high coarse-fraction abundance in selected sedimentsamples (indicative of general deglaciation) in conjunction withkaolinite-rich layers (indicative of a Queen Elizabeth Islands sourceregion). A detailed Carbon-14 analysis program will provide a precisetime scale.