The main focus of our research is to reconstruct the past interactions of the ocean with cryosphere and climate. These studies are especially important today as we are witnessing the profound changes in the Earth climatic and oceanic systems. Many of these changes exceed the scope of historical observations and cannot be comprehended without a longer-term paleoclimatic perspective.
Major thematic areas
- Climatic and oceanographic change in the Arctic during the Late Cenozoic (sea ice, circulation, biota, and ice-sheet/ocean interactions);
- History of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation;
- History of South Asian monsoons and changes in drainage from the Himalayas/Tibet as recorded in sediments of the Northern Indian Ocean;
- Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) formation in the Great Australian Bight area.
Our major study areas shown on the Sea Surface Temperature map (from Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Analysis).
Research methods
- Paleochemical, paleobiological, and other proxy studies of sediment cores
- Study of modern oceanographic processes as analogs for the paleo proxies
- Interpretation of sea-floor morphology (multibeam bathymetry, side-scan sonar) and seismic stratigraphy (CHIRP sonar, seismic reflection data)
People
- Leonid Polyak
Research Scientist - Harunur Rashid
Principal Investigator - Rachael Gray
M.S. student - Tracie Kline
Student - Kelly Best
Ph.D. student