Paleoceanographical/Geochemical Study of Geologically Brief, Warm Events in the Pliocene of the Southern Ocean

Recent work from deep sea (Ocean Drilling Project) records around the Antarctic continent has shown that there were one or more brief, extremely warm, paleoclimatic events in the Pliocene. This award supports a micropaleontological study of the deep sea sediment record from the South Ocean to identify Pliocene warm events in the southern high latitudes. Using microfossil assemblages (diatoms and coccoliths) the work will determine the temporal and spatial extent of these warm episodes and estimate the summer temperature for such time intervals.