VPW: Millenial Scale Variations in Thermohaline Circulation: A Pilo-Pleistocene Record from the ODP Leg162 North Atlantic Drift Sites

重建和理解过去的海洋环流和热量输送对于确定长期气候变化的原因和机制至关重要。 海洋环流通过冰的形成、影响海洋和大气中的CO2以及热传递直接影响全球环境。 冰和海洋记录显示，在末次冰期期间，温度和环流发生了千年尺度的变化，这表明在很短的时间尺度上气候不稳定。 ODP第162航次期间回收的高沉积速率岩心为研究过去300万年气候和温盐环流的千年尺度稳定性提供了独特的机会。 这将通过检查受气候和水流强度影响的沉积学参数并将其与独立生成的同位素和动物群记录进行比较来实现。 将研究四种不同的气候状况：晚更新世以100 kyr为主的世界，有大型的海洋冰盖，早更新世和上新世晚期以41 kyr为主的世界，以及北方半球冰期开始之前的上新世中期温暖间隔。 互动活动的重点是教授题为“现代和古代海洋中的漂移沉积”的研究生课程，与剑桥大学的科学家合作，并作为美国科学咨询委员会杰出讲师在美国为大学生举办巡回讲座。

Reconstructing and understanding past ocean circulation and heat transport are central to establishing the causes and mechanisms of long-term climate change. Ocean circulation directly influences the global environment through the formation of ice, by influencing oceanic and atmospheric CO2, and by heat transfer. Ice and marine records show millennial-scale changes in temperature and circulation during the last glacial interval, suggesting climate instability on very short time scales. The high-sedimentation-rate cores recovered during ODP Leg 162 provide a unique opportunity to investigate the millennial-scale stability of climate and thermohaline circulation over the last three million years. This will be accomplished by examining sedimentological parameters which are influenced by climate and current strength and comparing them to independently generated isotopic and faunal records. Four different climatic regimes will be investigated; the 100 kyr dominated late Pleistocene world with large marine based ice-sheets, the 41 kyr dominated world during the early Pleistocene and late Pliocene, and the mid-Pliocene warm interval before initiation of the Northern Hemisphere ice ages. Interactive activities focus on teaching a graduate course entitled "Drift Sedimentation in Modern and Ancient Oceans," collaborating with scientists at Cambridge University, and giving a lecture tour to college students in the U.S. as a U.S. Science Advisory Committee Distinguish Lecturer.