This two-year award for U.S.-France cooperative research involves Stefanie Brachfeld of Ohio State University and Catherine Kissel and Carlo Laj of the Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris, France. The objective of the research is the construction of a proven, millennial-scale correlation and dating tool for Antarctic glacial-marine sediments beyond the range of radio-carbon dating. Researchers will utilize an established geomagnetic method of dating sediment cores in which paleointensity records from an undated core are correlated with high-resolution paleointensity target curves in order to import absolute ages to one's core site. The analyses will be conducted on nine late Pleistocene through Holocene kasten cores and jumbo piston cores from sites in the East Antarctic land margin.
The construction of the paleointensity records requires investigation of the remanence vector recorded by the sediments (paleomagnetism) and investigation of the magnetic mineral assemblage in the sediments (rock magnetism). The US investigator is an expert in rock magnetic analyses. This is complemented by French expertise in paleomagnetism and access to the French lab's high-resolution pass-through magnetometer that will be used to measure u-channel samples.
This award represents the US side of a joint proposal to the NSF and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). NSF will cover travel funds and living expenses for the US investigators and graduate students. The CNRS will support the visits of French researchers to the United States.
