The objective of this research is to determine the frequency, associations, and phase relationships of proxy indicators of wind stress and upwelling and Pacific storm cyclogenesis as well as associated changes in carbon and oxygen isotopes. These variations will be fixed in time with the air of varves and accelerator mass spectroscopy 14-C dating. Newly discovered varved sediments on the continental slope off California contain evidence of climatic variation across a frequency spectrum ranging from one to several thousand years. There are few paleoclimatic records that can provide information as to changes occurring on the 2 to 10 year timescale of the El Nino - Southern Oscillation. Such a record may exist in the laminated sediments that occur on the California-Oregon continental margin. Anderson and Gardner will use these sediments to reconstruct the late Pleistocene and Holocene history of climate variability on these short timescales, an effort of direct interest to the Climate Dynamics Program and the Abrupt Climate Change initiative.
