230Th dynamics in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean: testing the 230Th-normalization method to estimate sediment fluxes

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。了解230年的行为对于解释沉积记录和了解气候变化如何影响海洋过程至关重要。这项研究将基于第230模型中的假设来解决使用这一技术时的争议。具体地说，PI将解决如何解释太平洋赤道沿线第230个沉积库存的问题，这些库存比恒定水柱生产率预期的库存要大。他们将比较横向平流沉积物通量可超过垂直降水通量2-4倍的假设与质量积累速率受230度迁移率和来自中太平洋涡旋的230度横向输送的影响的论点。这个项目将对这个问题得出不同结论的私人投资人员组成团队。该奖项支持一个研究邮轮，该邮轮将收集水柱、沉积物捕集器和沉积物(低通量红粘土环境)，以确定是否可能发生重大的第230次运输离开该地区。该奖项还支持研究生为期三年的教育和培训，邮轮将包括研究生和本科生的航海体验。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Understanding the behavior of 230Th is critical to interpret the sedimentary record and understand how climate change affects oceanographic processes. This study will address the controversy in using this technique based on assumptions made in the 230Th model. Specifically, the PIs will address the issue of how one explains sedimentary 230Th inventories along the equator in the Pacific that are larger than those expected from a constant water column production rate. They will compare the assumption that the flux of laterally advected sediment can surpass the vertically rained flux by up to 2-4 times versus the argument that mass accumulation rates are affected by 230Th mobility and lateral transport of 230Th from the central Pacific gyres. This project teams up PIs who have reached different conclusions about this question. The award supports a research cruise that will collect water column, sediment trap, and sediment (low-flux red-clay environments) to determine if significant 230Th transport might occur out of the region. The award also supports education and training of a graduate student for three years, and the cruise will include sea-going experience for both graduate and undergraduate students.