Amy
Leventer
Assistant Professor
of Geology
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Charlie
McClennen
William R Kenan Professor of Geology
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Amy and Charlie have participated in many cruises to Antarctica, either
individually or jointly,
commonly taking one or more Colgate students with them. Here is a brief description of one of the
more recent cruises for which Amy was the chief scientist in charge.
CHAOS
(Coring Holocene Antarctic Ocean Sediments)
From January 30 to March 29 2001, a team of 25 scientists, including Charlie McClennen and
Amy Leventer (Chief Scientist), and Colgate undergraduate geology majors Natalie McLenaghan,
Meredith Metcalf, and Caroline Olson, explored the East Antarctic Margin on cruise NBP0101 of
the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer. The Palmer is one of two icebreakers leased by the National
Science Foundation and is dedicated almost entirely to conducting scientific research in
the Southern Ocean. This 58-day cruise left from Hobart Tasmania and returned to port in
Capetown South Africa, after transiting nearly a quarter of the way around the perimeter of
Antarctica. Along the way, nearly a quarter mile of sediment core was recovered from seven
deep shelf basins, with the goal of developing a record of climate and oceanographic change
during the Quaternary. Although the pace of recent climate change appears to be more rapid
and of a larger scale in Antarctica compared to other areas of the globe, the factors forcing
climate change in Antarctica are not well understood, due to the relative inaccessibility of
the southernmost continent and the inhospitable working conditions. In order to address this
scarcity of samples, particularly from the eastern side of the continent, we devoted our two
months of ship time to acquiring as much data as possible. Most of the sediment core material
was recovered with the "Jumbo Piston Corer," a 90-foot long, 5" diameter, assembly of steel
barrels, plastic core liner, and lead weights. Core sites were selected based on a combination
of sub-bottom profiling and seafloor bathymetric mapping of well stratified and undisturbed
acoustic reflectors. Back in the lab, our group has been responsible for two lines of
investigation. First, we develop paleoenvironmental reconstructions based on microscopic
analysis of diatoms, single celled algae with a hard silica skeleton that serves as a permanent
record of past climate. Second, we work with the sea floor maps to decipher the geologic processes
that have shaped the seabed. Natalie, Caroline and Meredith worked with both Charlie and Amy
as well as with our colleagues from other institutions, on senior projects based on the data
collected during the cruise. Their contribution to the success of this cruise has been invaluable.
Geology undergrads will continue the detailed analysis for the next few years as we extract the
clearest indicators of Antarctic margin climate change from the core samples.
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Contact Information:
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Department of Geology
Colgate University
13 Oak Drive
Hamilton, NY 13346
Ph 315/228-7213
Fax 315/228-7187
aleventer@mail.colgate.edu
cmcclennen@mail.colgate.edu |
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