New Approaches to Unraveling the Climatic and Sea-Level History of the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico

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。揭示西北墨西哥湾气候和海平面历史的新方法最近的飓风，如卡特里娜和艾克提醒政策制定者和规划者，沿海社区对风暴、气候变化、下沉和海平面上升等自然力量的易感性。大约2600年前，墨西哥湾沿岸的几个河口经历了一段快速变化的时期。关于过去5000年来海平面变化的本质的持续争论，加上缺乏百年尺度的气候变化记录，使得这一事件的原因尚不清楚。该项目将使用两种以前没有在墨西哥湾研究中使用过的海平面和气候重建方法，为过去5000年来墨西哥湾西北部的海平面和气候历史提供更严格的约束。这些新数据将有助于确定墨西哥湾沿岸河口的重组是由气候变化引起的，还是由2600年前海平面上升速度的加快引起的。除了确定这一事件的原因外，这些新的记录将为墨西哥湾海平面上升的背景速度提供更严格的限制，这可能会为沿着这条海岸线发生的下沉量提供一些新的见解。新的数据也将提供比目前美国中南部更长的百年干旱记录。该项目支持一名研究生和一名本科生帮助进行这项研究。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).New Approaches to Unraveling the Climatic and Sea-Level History of the Northwestern Gulf of MexicoAlexander Simms, Anna M Cruse, Regina KalchgruberEAR-0921963Oklahoma State UniversityABSTRACTRecent hurricanes such as Katrina and Ike have reminded policy makers and planners of the susceptibility of coastal communities to natural forces such as storms, climate change, subsidence, and eustatic sea-level rise. Around 2,600 years ago, several estuaries along the Gulf Coast underwent a period of rapid change. The continued debate concerning the nature of sea-level change over the last 5,000 years, coupled with the lack of century-scale records of climate change, leaves the cause of this event unclear. This project will use two methods of sea-level and climate reconstructions not previously used in Gulf of Mexico studies to provide tighter constraints on the sea-level and climate history of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico over the last 5,000. This new data will help determine if the reorganization of the Gulf Coast estuaries was caused by a change in climate or an increase in the rate of sea-level rise 2,600 years ago. In addition to determining the cause of this event, these new records will provide tighter constraints on the background rates of sea-level rise within the Gulf of Mexico, which may provide some new insights into the amount of subsidence that is occurring along this coastline. The new data will also provide a longer record of century-scale drought than currently exists for the south-central USA. This project supports one graduate and one undergraduate student who will help conduct this research.