Richard Chen
Pronouns: he/him
Research Mentor(s): Ingrid Hendy
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Geological Sciences / LSA
Program:
Authors: Ingrid Hendy, Richard Chen
Session: Session 3: 11:00 am – 11: 50 am
Poster: 19
Abstract
To further knowledge of South Paleogene Ocean climate, a group of scientists set out on the JOIDES Resolution, a deep ocean core-drilling vessel in the southernmost basin of New Zealand called the Campbell Plateau. The Campbell Plateau is part of Zealandia, a larger, mostly submerged, continent. JOIDES used hydraulic powered multiple core piston drilling to collect a 581.16m long sediment core at 1221m water depth from IODP site U1553 (52°13.44’S:166°11.49’E). The total length of the core reaches as far as 60 million years ago, shown from the stratigraphic column. Elemental analysis of core sediments was completed in segments of 1.5m to determine percent weights of carbon and nitrogen. These cores are now being studied at the University of Michigan to better understand seawater chemistry and chronostratigraphic relations through the Paleogene and Late Cretaceous. Our results could give us insight into Earth conditions many million years ago and perhaps explain a sudden increase in temperature without an increase in CO2 approx. 55 million years ago. Analysis of retrieved samples is still ongoing but from our analysis of nitrogen and calcium carbonate we hope to determine a pattern in the sediment tracing back 60 million years.
