Reconstructing deep-ocean circulation during Cenozoic climate transitions from the marine sediment record

• Main Author: Romans, Brian
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Montclair State University Digital Commons 2020
• Subjects: Environmental Sciences; Geology; Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; Ross Sea; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; Antarc*; Ice Sheet; Newfoundland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/sustainability-seminar/2020/spring2020/7; https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/context/sustainability-seminar/article/1074/viewcontent/Brian_Romans_Seminar_flier_April_14.pdf

Ocean circulation plays a critical role in the Earth’s climate system through the storage and transfer of heat and carbon dioxide. The North Atlantic and Southern Ocean are of particular interest because these are regions where deep-water components of global circulation develop. Dr. Romans uses the deep-sea sedimentary record to reconstruct past ocean circulation and its relationship to past climatic and tectonic conditions. He integrates information from a broad range of spatial and temporal scales, from seismic-reflection data that reveals regional sedimentation patterns to high resolution records based on quantitative grain-size analysis from cores. Dr. Romans will present research from the North Atlantic Ocean (Expedition 342, Newfoundland Drifts) that shows how vast deep-sea “drift” deposits relate to the onset of and changes in ocean circulation in the Eocene through Miocene. In addition to his work on the North Atlantic, Dr. Romans will also present preliminary findings from new drilling (January-February 2018) in the Ross Sea (Expedition 374, West Antarctic Ice Sheet History), which aims to study interactions of Southern Ocean circulation and Antarctic ice sheet dynamics during significant climate events of the Miocene and Pliocene.