GOODRIDGE, Carolyn ('00) (Advisor: Amy Leventer)
In light of recent controversies over climate change, paleoclimate indicators in the Antarctic Peninsula are being studied through a multi-proxy analysis of a 20.1 meter long Jumbo Piston core recovered from the Gerlache Strait region. The Antarctic Peninsula is ideal for such paleoclimate records as it is known to be highly sensitive to climate change. Magnetic susceptibility, ice rafted debris measurements, quantitative diatom analysis, grain size analysis, and SEM photographs provide evidence that the mid-Holocene was a time of dramatic climate change. A series of proposed varves in the lower section of the core was identified and is the result of increased primary productivity and terrigenous input. Sequences of repeated, regular couplets were observed. Biogenic layers were deposited during the spring bloom while the terrigenous layers are the result of sediment accumulation the rest of the year. Grain size measurements and SEM photographs support this conclusion and show that the biogenic layers are dominated by Chaetoceros resting spores. This mid-Holocene peak in biologic productivity tentatively is the result of melting glacial ice, suggesting that glaciers were proximal to the Gerlache Strait at this time.
