Lamont-Doherty Core Repository: Curation, Service, Professional Development, Outreach

The project will support the ongoing operation of the Lamont-Doherty Core Repository (LDCR). The LDCR contains a large collection of deep-sea cores from every major world ocean and sea. The collection also contains seafloor dredge samples, coral samples, and wetland and river cores. Scientists from throughout the earth science community use the LDCR collection to study a wide range of topics. Examples include studies of past climate variability, polar ice sheet history, and recent ocean hypoxia. The project would support curation of the sample collections and providing samples to the geoscience community. It would also support improving the digital interface for online searches. The Broader Impacts of the project would include professional development opportunities for graduate students and undergraduates. Additional broader impacts activities include education and outreach efforts aimed at K-12 students and the general public.

This proposal seeks support: a) to provide for the long-term curation and archiving of samples and cores collected by the geoscience community in order to ensure their preservation and usefulness to current and future generations of Earth scientists; b) to serve the needs of the national geoscience community by fulfilling sample requests as well as providing sample descriptions, core log measurements, and basic sedimentological, geochemical, and geophysical analyses on materials of interest; c) to pursue new initiatives designed to enhance the utility of the archived collections; d) to create professional development opportunities for students and early career scientists, including summer internships and opportunities to use state of the art instruments; e) to continue development of outreach and educational materials and continue educating teachers, students, and the general public about the important role the Core Repository plays in building a better understanding of Earth processes such as climate change, ocean acidification, evolution, and tectonics. The intellectual merit of the Repository stems from the use of its personnel and resources to accomplish scientific advances across a diverse array of contemporary research topics. These topics include deep-sea exploration, geological hazards, marine geology, tectonics, sedimentology, lake and wetlands studies, polar region studies, geochemistry, evolution, environmental pollution, and paleoclimatology. The Broader impact activities of the LDCR include educational activities at all levels, an active on-line presence, and hosting hundreds of visitors a year (thousands when the annual Lamont Open House is counted), all of whom leave with an understanding of the scientific and educational resources available at the LDCR as well as the NSF-supported service role we play in the scientific community.

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.