Extending the High-Resolution Global Climate Record in Santa Barbara Basin: Evaluating Climate Change Potential

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

This renewal project will focus on integrated analyses of 32 piston cores that provide a very high resolution paleoceanographic and paleoclimatological record of the period from ~150 ka to ~700 ka in the Santa Barbara Basin. The piston cores present an unprecedented opportunity to constrain orbital- and millennial-scale changes before 160 ka, and researchers will combine biostratigraphic, paleoceanographic, and sequence stratigraphic methods to analyze the cores and refine the stratigraphic correlation among the cores and interpretations of basin deposition patterns. A specific goal is to determine whether certain proxy measurements (e.g., Mg/Ca) that have been successfully applied to younger core material can be used to reliably interpret older cores in this area. The most important broader impact is the capacity of this research to extend the high resolution climate record back to ~700 ka. The project will also support undergraduate and graduate student researchers.