This award supports an investigation of the paleoceanographic, paleoclimatic, stratigraphic and biogeographic evolution of the Antarctic Ocean, using a suite of high-quality, deep-drilled sedimentary sequences. This investigation will utilize, in an integrated fashion, oxygen and carbon isotopes, quantitative planktonic foraminiferal analysis, sediment composition including ice-rafted detritus and trace metal analysis. Biostratigraphic and strontium isotopic data are also being generated for integration with magnetostratigraphy to develop the necessary chronostratigraphic framework. The recent, highly successful, ocean drilling expeditions to Antarctic and Subantarctic regions have now provided important, new sedimentary sequences that can be employed for further rapid advancement in the understanding of Southern Ocean evolution. Of particular importance is the availability of Antarctic calcareous biogenic sequences of Paleogene age that have never before been available. Much of this research will concentrate on the latest Cretaceous through Paleogene sequence. The primary objective of this research, in its broadest sense, is to better understand the evolution of the Antarctic marine environment since the latest Cretaceous and the impact that major changes in this region had on global paleoceanographic and climate history. These investigations are expected to add much knowledge about the evolution of Antarctic paleoclimates and oceans through the late Phanerozoic. Being so remote, this area still remains among the least known of the world's latitudinal belts, yet has played a key role in the evolution of the global environment.
