Opal Burial in Equatorial Sediments: A Test of the "Silicic Acid Leakage Hypothesis."

Columbia University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal is funded to confirm the Silicic Acid Leakage Hypothesis" which is that silicic acid is less efficiently utilized in the southern ocean during glacial periods and transported, via intermediate waters, to the equatorial upwelling regions to support higher opal productivity, resulting in a lower carbonate/Corg rain ratios and an increase in ocean alkalinity. The PIs propose to the hypothesis by examining changes in opal accumulation rates in the equatorial regions between the last glacial and the Holocene.