This two-year award provides support for US-France cooperative research aimed at high- resolution studies of carbonate sediments from the last glacial cycle in the Atlantic and the Southern Oceans. The project involves researchers Kenneth Sims and Roger Francois at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Francis Albarede at the Ecole Normal Superieure in Lyon, France. The investigators will evaluate core samples with a resolution of more than 5000 years. High-resolution analysis of nuclides from cores will be performed using single and multiple plasma mass spectrometry. French and US investigators bring to this collaboration expertise in chemical separation techniques, which they will apply to core samples. The project takes advantage of a special mass spectrometer, the Plasma 54 from the Ecole Normale Superieure in Lyon. This is equipped with a magnetic prism, multiple collection, and ion counting devices. The project will advance understanding of paleocirculation in Atlantic and Southern Oceans and the methodologies of single and multiple plasma spectrometry.
