Collaborative Research: He and Os isotope investigation of Miocene marine sediments: particulate extraterrestrial matter as a paleoflux tracer

确定海洋沉积物积累的速率对于重建生产力和碳埋藏的过去变化至关重要，但重建长地质时间尺度上的这种通量通量速率的能力受到放射性衰变的限制（例如，230 Thxs）和代理生产率或来源的可变性（例如，4He）。这个合作项目，涉及来自马诺阿的夏威夷大学和加州理工学院的研究人员，开发使用海洋沉积物中的外星粒子作为通量代理，潜在地延长科学家？能够重建从数万年到数亿年不断变化的积累速率。通过结合海洋沉积物中颗粒状外星物质的两种独立，稳定的示踪剂-氦（He）和锇（Os）同位素-研究人员将能够区分在运输到海底期间改变地球外通量和地球外粒子的陆地聚焦。该方法将在距今1000万至400万年的时间窗口内应用，已知这一时间段包括因小行星带碰撞而大大增加的地外通量。 研究人员将比较来自太平洋盆地的许多不同沉积物岩心的记录，其累积速率变化超过20倍，以确定颗粒状外星He是否优先集中在相对于Os的高沉积速率地点。这将大大提高这些沉积物作为古海洋学档案的潜力。在更广泛的影响方面，资金支持博士后研究人员和本科生的教育和培训，并促进国际合作。该研究还将开发一种潜在的重要新工具，为研究重要的环境参数（包括生产力和陆地干旱度）如何长期变化提供新的潜力。

Determining the rates of marine sediment accumulation is critical in reconstructing past changes in productivity and carbon burial, but the ability to reconstruct such flux flux rates over long geologic timescales is been limited by radioactive decay (e.g., 230Thxs) and by variability in the proxy production rate or source (e.g., 4He). This collaborative project, involving researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the California Institute of Technology, develops the use of extraterrestrial particles in marine sediments as flux proxies, potentially extending scientists? ability to reconstruct changing accumulation rates from tens of thousands of years to hundreds of millions of years. By combining two independent, stable tracers of particulate extraterrestrial matter in marine sediments-- helium (He) and osmium (Os) isotopes-- the researchers will be able to distinguish between changing extraterrestrial flux to Earth and terrestrial focusing of extraterrestrial particles during transport to the seafloor. The method will be applied over a time window of 10 to 4 million years before present, a time period known to encompass an episode of greatly increased extraterrestrial flux to the Earth resulting from collisions in the asteroid belt. The researchers will compare records from a number of different sediment cores from the Pacific Basin, with accumulation rates varying by a factor of more than twenty, to determine whether or not particulate extraterrestrial He is preferentially focused to high sedimentation rate sites relative to Os. Lastly, the researchers will test whether a reliable age model can be developed for Pacific red clays, which would greatly improve the potential of these sediments as paleoceanographic archives. In terms of broader impact, funding supports education and training of a postdoctoral researcher and an undergraduate student and fosters international collaborations. The research will also develop a potentially important new tool that would unlock new potential for studying how important environmental parameters, including productivity and terrestrial aridity, change over long time periods.