Collaborative Research: A Drilling Site Survey for the South Pacific Paleogene Latitudinal Transect: Paleoceanography of the Eocene sub-Antarctic Ocean

Award is for a geophysical survey and piston coring project in the south central Pacific. The object of the project is to conduct seismic profiling, geophysical surveys, and collect piston cores as a site survey for potential future ocean drilling in this area. These data will help define Southern Ocean structure in the Pacific prior to the separate of Australia from Antarctica and the opening of the Drake Passage. The ultimate goal of this project is to decipher the workings of Earth's climatic systems during periods of very warm climate (the early Eocene). The results will help test computer models of Earth's climate under conditions very different from today's, define the important climate feedbacks that are important to maintain warm systems and contribute to our understanding of how the world may respond if the present warming trends continue.