Magnetic Studies of Cores from Lakes in Taylor Valley, Antarctica

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This award, provided by the Office of Polar Programs, provides support for a project to conduct magnetic investigations of sediments from ice covered lakes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in concert with other paleoenvironmental work on the sediment cores. INTELLECTUAL MERITThis award facilitates an extraordinary opportunity to conduct paleomagnetic and environmental studies on a suite of cores from the Dry Valleys. The cores were collected in November 2002 by Dr. Peter Doran and his colleagues as part of the NSF-funded project: "Paleoclimate Inferred from Lake Sediment Cores in Taylor Valley, Antarctica". The magnetic studies will improve the correlation between cores from a given lake, will provide new information about past behavior of the McMurdo-Dry Valley ecosystem, and will contribute to the development of a robust chronology for the cores. The research will significantly augment and enhance planned research on the sedimentology, geochemistry, mineralogy, and biostratigraphy of the cores. Funding under the Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) program is appropriate for this project because practical considerations dictate that sampling of the cores take place at the beginning of August, 2003, and because both research and logistical considerations require that the magnetic sampling be done before other samples are collected.BROADER IMPACTSThe proposed research will contribute to a better understanding of the McMurdo-Dry Valley ecosystem, which is the focus of a Long-Term Ecological Research project. The proposed project will also advance the field of environmental magnetism by demonstrating how magnetic parameters can be used to identify different sources of sediment in a lake core. It will also provide new insights about the behavior of the geomagnetic field at high latitudes, which in turn will lead to development of a master curve of secular variation that can be used for dating Holocene sedimentary sequences in Antarctica. And the project will provide an opportunity for undergraduates to participate in research involving Antarctic materials.