Magnetic Studies of Cores from Lakes in Taylor Valley, Antarctica

该奖项由极地项目办公室提供，为麦克默多干谷冰雪覆盖湖泊沉积物的磁调查项目提供支持，该项目与沉积物岩心的其他古环境研究相结合。该奖项为对来自干谷的一套岩心进行古地磁和环境研究提供了难得的机会。这些岩心于2002年11月由彼得·多兰博士和他的同事收集，作为美国国家科学基金会资助的项目的一部分：“从南极洲泰勒谷的湖泊沉积物岩心推断古气候”。磁场研究将改善给定湖泊岩心之间的相关性，将提供有关麦克默多-干谷生态系统过去行为的新信息，并将有助于岩心年代学的发展。这项研究将大大增加和加强对岩心的沉积学、地球化学、矿物学和生物地层学的计划研究。探索性研究小额拨款（SGER）项目的资金是适合这个项目的，因为实际考虑要求岩心取样在2003年8月初进行，因为研究和后勤考虑都要求在收集其他样品之前进行磁取样。更广泛的影响拟议的研究将有助于更好地了解麦克默多-干谷生态系统，这是长期生态研究项目的重点。拟议中的项目还将通过演示如何使用磁参数来识别湖芯中沉积物的不同来源，从而推进环境磁学领域。它还将提供关于高纬度地磁场行为的新见解，这反过来将导致长期变化的主曲线的发展，可用于确定南极洲全新世沉积序列的年代。该项目将为本科生提供参与南极材料研究的机会。

This award, provided by the Office of Polar Programs, provides support for a project to conduct magnetic investigations of sediments from ice covered lakes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in concert with other paleoenvironmental work on the sediment cores. INTELLECTUAL MERITThis award facilitates an extraordinary opportunity to conduct paleomagnetic and environmental studies on a suite of cores from the Dry Valleys. The cores were collected in November 2002 by Dr. Peter Doran and his colleagues as part of the NSF-funded project: "Paleoclimate Inferred from Lake Sediment Cores in Taylor Valley, Antarctica". The magnetic studies will improve the correlation between cores from a given lake, will provide new information about past behavior of the McMurdo-Dry Valley ecosystem, and will contribute to the development of a robust chronology for the cores. The research will significantly augment and enhance planned research on the sedimentology, geochemistry, mineralogy, and biostratigraphy of the cores. Funding under the Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) program is appropriate for this project because practical considerations dictate that sampling of the cores take place at the beginning of August, 2003, and because both research and logistical considerations require that the magnetic sampling be done before other samples are collected.BROADER IMPACTSThe proposed research will contribute to a better understanding of the McMurdo-Dry Valley ecosystem, which is the focus of a Long-Term Ecological Research project. The proposed project will also advance the field of environmental magnetism by demonstrating how magnetic parameters can be used to identify different sources of sediment in a lake core. It will also provide new insights about the behavior of the geomagnetic field at high latitudes, which in turn will lead to development of a master curve of secular variation that can be used for dating Holocene sedimentary sequences in Antarctica. And the project will provide an opportunity for undergraduates to participate in research involving Antarctic materials.