Conference Proposal: Scientific Exploration of the Arctic and North Pacific (SEA-NorP)

University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

Better constraining the past climate and tectonic history of the North Pacific/Bering Sea/Arctic Ocean region is critical to understanding modern climatic changes as well as geologic hazards along the Alaskan margin. However, these regions are seriously under-sampled in terms of complete records of change over time, as recorded in marine sediments, which contain evidence of changes occurring in the oceans and on land. Such records can be collected via coring/drilling of seafloor sediments via the NSF-funded drill ship, the R/V Joides Resolution which serves the NSF International Ocean Discovery Program. This workshop improves coordination and maximizing/leveraging expensive ocean drilling expeditions and the science that comes from them. It draws together experts as well as scientists new to ocean drilling to evaluate best options for drilling based on critical scientific questions and existing site-characterization data needed to address them. The workshop specifically targets investigators with broad interests in the North Pacific, Bering Sea, and Arctic Ocean, as well as early career investigators. Potential topics include paleoceanographic reconstructions, changes in marine ecosystems across climate shifts, tectonics, volatile cycling and subduction and geohazards. The workshop involves a series of keynote talks, short visionary/lightning talks that spotlight early career scientists and those new to ocean drilling, and breakout sessions organized both around science themes and geographic sub-regions will develop targeted science questions. Funds are augmented by those the International Ocean Discovery Program US Science Support Program. Broader impacts include support of early career scientists to come to the meeting, leveraging assets of the NSF-funded ocean drilling program the NSF-funded GeoPRISMS program, and the emerging Subduction Zones in 4-Dimensions initiative. It will also enhance science planning intended to document geohazards and their frequency on the Aleutian arc and environs; and support of an early career faculty member in New Mexico, an EPSCoR state (a state that does not receive significant federal funding). Limited previous drilling in the North Pacific, Bering Sea, and Arctic Ocean hampers scientific understanding of fundamental Earth processes such as: (1) impacts of oceanic exchange between the Arctic and North Pacific Oceans on long-term climate evolution and the dynamics of rapid climate change as seen in marine sediment cores that allow reconstructions of changes in sea level, ocean salinity, temperature, sea-ice extent, and the response of marine ecosystems along this critical junction in the climate system; (2) understanding how ice and sea level respond to warming and cooling and differentiation among paleoenvironments such as grounded glacial ice, floating ice shelves, sea ice, and open waters; (3) documentation of the extent of eruptions, the long term history of the Aleutian islands and the evolution of the mantle magmatic source, histories that are an important starting point for understanding subduction and tectonics in the North Pacific; (4) studies of the time intervals and pattern of subduction zone earthquakes, which is critical for understanding megathrust locking behavior and the submarine landslides and tsunamis triggered by such events; and (5) improved understanding of marine ecosystem thresholds in response to climate change and different levels of atmospheric CO2, both in terms of surface productivity (such as seasonal phytoplankton blooms) and subsurface marine ecosystems during times of different CO2), sea surface temperature, and sea level boundary conditions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.