US-France Cooperative Research: Late Neogene Paleoceanogra-phy of the Centeral Indian Basin

该奖项将支持伍兹霍尔海洋研究所的David Johnson博士和法国巴黎自然历史博物馆的Jean Pierre Caulet博士之间的合作研究。该项目的目标是对1989年法国考察船马里昂·杜弗雷纳号取心期间在中印度盆地收集的长活塞岩芯进行详细采样和分析。在岩心采集区，新近系放射虫组合保存完好，古地磁极性记录容易识别。利用长岩心，调查人员将能够改进和延长动物基准面的精确校准，将其与磁极时间尺度延伸到中新世晚期和中期。他们还将能够将二氧化硅记录与之前在这艘船上进行的探险的岩心记录相结合。通过这一综合，研究人员希望能够根据中印度洋的构造和古海洋学历史来解释区域硅质分布模式。这项研究可能会为进化生物学家随后的模型提供重要的限制。定性数据可能会为地层间隔和地理区域指明方向，在那里，时间推进的进化模式可以通过其他微型动物和微型植物化石海洋生物进一步得到证实。该项目将受益于两名研究人员在微古生物学和沉积学方面的互补专业知识。

This award will support collaborative research between Dr. David Johnson, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Dr. Jean Pierre Caulet, Museum of Natural History, Paris, France. The objective of the project is the detailed sampling and analysis of long piston cores collected in the Central Indian Basin during the 1989 coring expedition of the French research vessel Marion Dufresne. In the region where the cores were collected, the Neogene radiolarian assemblages are well preserved and the paleomagnetic polarity record can be readily identified. Using the long cores, the investigators will be able to refine and extend precise calibrations of faunal datum levels with the magnetic polarity time scale into the Late and Middle Miocene. They will also be able to integrate the silica records with those of cores taken from previous expeditions on this vessel. Through this synthesis, the investigators expect to be able to interpret the regional silica distribution patterns in terms of the tectonic and paleoceanographic history of the Central Indian Ocean. This study may provide important constraints on subsequent models by evolutionary biologists. The qualitative data may point the way toward stratigraphic intervals and geographic regions where time-transgressive evolutionary patterns can be further substantiated using other microfaunal and microfloral fossil marine organisms. The project will benefit from the complementary expertise of the two investigators in micropaleontology and sedimentology.