Collaborative Research: A Test for Extending the High-Resolution Climate Record back to 1.2 Ma & Investigating the Mid-Pleistocene Climate Transition in Santa Barbara Basin

PIs计划在2008年与美国地质勘探局合作进行一次综合高分辨率多通道地震和取心巡航，以收集倾斜露头地层中重叠的活塞岩心。将对回收的岩心进行沉积学、同位素和古生物学研究，测试三维结构和地层模型，验证早至晚第四纪沉积物的存在和适用性，提供超高分辨率的海洋古气候记录，并制定适合恢复连续古气候记录的最佳和安全的钻井策略。这项研究的目的是提供一个初步的框架，以验证一个假设，即在现代“10万年冰川循环世界”首次发展的中更新世气候过渡期间，出现了过去70万年典型的高度独特的千年尺度的全球气候行为。所提出的工作旨在加强对气候变率和主要气候转变以及与气候不稳定和气候突变有关的因素的认识。对长滩州立大学学生参与者的培训将与美国国家科学基金会资助的地球科学多样性增强计划相结合。

PIs propose to conduct an integrated high-resolution Multi-channel Seismics and coring cruise in 2008 in collaboration with the USGS to collect suites of overlapping piston cores across dipping outcrop strata. Sedimentologic, isotopic and paleontological studies will be conducted on the recovered cores to test the 3D structure and stratigraphic models, to verify the presence and suitability of early-to-late Quaternary sediments to provide an ultra-high-resolution marine paleoclimate record, and to develop optimal and safe drilling strategies suitable for recovering a continuous paleoclimate record.The study aims to provide the initial framework for testing the hypothesis that the highly distinctive millennial-scale global climate behavior typical of the last 70 kyr emerged during the mid-Pleistocene climate transition when the modern "100,000-yr glacial-cycle world" first developed.Broader Impacts The proposed work aims to enhance understanding of climate variability and major climate transitions, and of factors related to climate destabilization and abrupt climate change. Training of student participants at Long Beach State will be integrated with the NSF-funded Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program.