Session Announcement and Call for Papers
The Cenozoic Arctic Ocean Revealed
American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting
10-14 December 2007
San Francisco, California
Abstract Submission Deadline: 6 September 2007
For further information, please go to:
http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm07/?content=search&show=detail&sessid=201
Papers are invited for Session PP08: "The Cenozoic Arctic Ocean
Revealed" being convened at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall
Meeting on 10-14 December 2007 in San Francisco, California.
Session Description:
In 2004 the first scientific drilling expedition to the central Arctic
Ocean, Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 302, Arctic Coring
Expedition (ACEX), recovered sediment cores to 428 meters below seafloor
(mbsf). ACEX's destination was the Lomonosov Ridge, a sliver of
continental crust that broke away from the Eurasian plate in the early
Cenozoic. A continuous paleoceanographic record was anticipated from
seismic analysis of the sediments that accumulated atop the ridge as it
tectonically moved northward and subsided. The primary ACEX scientific
objective was to continuously recover this record by drilling and
coring. Prior to ACEX, the Cenozoic history (0 to 65 Ma) of the Arctic
Ocean was largely unknown. Initial results revealed a continuous
paleo-record to ~18 Ma; a long hiatus from ~44 to ~18 Ma; a first
occurrence of ice-rafted debris in the middle Eocene (~45 Ma); fresh
surface waters at ~49 Ma; and warm surface waters during the Paleocene
Eocene Thermal Maximum. Since then, over 40 scientists have further
analyzed this unique paleoclimate record using petrophysical, chemical,
paleontological, stratigraphic, and geophysical techniques. Other
studies have integrated ACEX results to develop pan-Arctic
reconstructions and interpretations. This session presents these
follow-on results that elucidate the paleo-environment of the central
Arctic Ocean over much of the Cenozoic.
Conveners:
Kathryn Moran
University of Rhode Island
E-mail: kate.moran [at] gso.uri.edu
Jan Backman
Stockholm University
E-mail: backman [at] geo.su.se
Further information and abstract submission procedures are available at:
http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm07/