Collaborative Research: A Drilling Site Survey for the South Pacific Paleogene Latitudinal Transect: Paleoceanography of the Eocene sub-Antarctic Ocean

该奖项授予中南部太平洋地区的地球物理勘测和活塞取心项目。该项目的目标是进行地震剖面图、地球物理测量，并收集活塞岩心，作为未来可能在该地区进行海洋钻探的现场勘测。这些数据将有助于在澳大利亚从南极洲分离和德雷克海峡开通之前确定太平洋的南大洋结构。这个项目的最终目标是破译地球气候系统在非常温暖的气候时期(始新世早期)的运作。这些结果将有助于测试地球气候在与今天截然不同的条件下的计算机模型，定义对维持变暖系统至关重要的重要气候反馈，并有助于我们理解如果目前的变暖趋势继续下去，世界可能会如何反应。

Award is for a geophysical survey and piston coring project in the south central Pacific. The object of the project is to conduct seismic profiling, geophysical surveys, and collect piston cores as a site survey for potential future ocean drilling in this area. These data will help define Southern Ocean structure in the Pacific prior to the separate of Australia from Antarctica and the opening of the Drake Passage. The ultimate goal of this project is to decipher the workings of Earth's climatic systems during periods of very warm climate (the early Eocene). The results will help test computer models of Earth's climate under conditions very different from today's, define the important climate feedbacks that are important to maintain warm systems and contribute to our understanding of how the world may respond if the present warming trends continue.