A Half-Million Year Geochemical Record of Climate from Cariaco Basin

卡里亚科盆地是委内瑞拉北部边缘的一个深而缺氧的洼地，由于其迅速积累的、几乎未受干扰的沉积物，已被证明是一个重要的古气候信息储存库。本研究将以现有沉积物序列最长的岩心（ODP1002）为研究对象，生成近55万年来第一个连续的年代际分辨率海洋气候和环境变化记录。研究人员利用XRF扫描从终止II（~140,000年前）生成高分辨率地球化学记录，并返回到恢复序列的基础，为已经在岩心年轻部分完成的高分辨率XRF扫描提供了经济高效且合乎逻辑的扩展。当自然气候强迫存在显著差异时，XRF数据将提供对多个时间尺度和多个冰期-间冰期旋回的气候变化速率和幅度的见解。这些数据将在人类世代的时间尺度上揭示热带气候的敏感性。研究生和本科生将参与研究。

The Cariaco Basin, a deep, presently anoxic depression along the northern margin of Venezuela, has proven to be an important repository of paleoclimatic information by virtue of its rapidly accumulating, virtually undisturbed sediments. Focusing on the core with the longest sediment sequence currently available (ODP1002), this research will generate the first continuous decadal resolution marine record of climate and environmental change over the last ~550,000 years. The researchers employ XRF scanning to generate high-resolution geochemical records from Termination II (~140,000 years ago) back to the base of the recovered sequence, providing a cost-efficient and logical extension of high resolution XRF scanning already completed on the younger part of the core. The XRF data will provide insights into the rates and magnitudes of climate change on multiple timescales and over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles when natural climate forcing differed substantially. The data will shed light on tropical climate sensitivity on the timescale of human generations. Graduate and undergraduate students will be involved in the research.