This award will support collaborative research between Dr. David Johnson, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Dr. Jean Pierre Caulet, Museum of Natural History, Paris, France. The objective of the project is the detailed sampling and analysis of long piston cores collected in the Central Indian Basin during the 1989 coring expedition of the French research vessel Marion Dufresne. In the region where the cores were collected, the Neogene radiolarian assemblages are well preserved and the paleomagnetic polarity record can be readily identified. Using the long cores, the investigators will be able to refine and extend precise calibrations of faunal datum levels with the magnetic polarity time scale into the Late and Middle Miocene. They will also be able to integrate the silica records with those of cores taken from previous expeditions on this vessel. Through this synthesis, the investigators expect to be able to interpret the regional silica distribution patterns in terms of the tectonic and paleoceanographic history of the Central Indian Ocean. This study may provide important constraints on subsequent models by evolutionary biologists. The qualitative data may point the way toward stratigraphic intervals and geographic regions where time-transgressive evolutionary patterns can be further substantiated using other microfaunal and microfloral fossil marine organisms. The project will benefit from the complementary expertise of the two investigators in micropaleontology and sedimentology.
