Collaborative Research: Southern Hemisphere Mid-Depth Water Masses and the Instability of the Ocean's Conveyor Circulation--The Marine Sediment Record from Southwest Africa

University Of California-San Diego Scripps Inst Of Oceanography, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

Funds are provided for a cruise to collect a suite of cores from the Southwest African margin to construct several detailed depth transects to monitor the full dynamic range and stratal geometry of the mid depth water masses. The post-cruise proposed research program will establish the sensitivity of Southern Hemisphere ocean circulation to major instability during the Pleistocene and Holocene by mapping changes in the distribution of radiocarbon in benthic foraminifera over specific abrupt events to deduce the ventilation history of mid-depth water and help delineate northern vs. southern sources.