{"id":10,"date":"2012-10-25T18:48:45","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T18:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/csiddoway\/?page_id=10"},"modified":"2023-05-22T03:00:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T03:00:36","slug":"antarctica-research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/csiddoway\/antarctica-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Antarctica Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Current Research\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Christine Siddoway currently has three Antarctic research projects<\/a>. These are:\u00a0“Ice sheet erosional Interaction with Hot geotherm (ICI-Hot<\/a>) in West Antarctica” ; “Testing the Linchpin of WAIS collapse<\/a> with diatoms and IRD in Pleistocene and Late Pliocene strata of the Resolution Drift, Amundsen Sea,” and, as a shipboard scientist on expedition IODP379<\/a>, current NSF funded work relating to “Amundsen Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet History.”<\/b><\/p>\n

ICI-Hot<\/strong>\u00a0investigates the time of formation of the West Antarctic ice sheet and interactions of the icesheet with the subglacial landscape and bedrock<\/a>.\u00a0 Approaches of low temperature thermochronology\u2014specifically, helium- and fission track dating\u2014 will be used on zircon and apatite mineral extracted from specimens of granite that were obtained both from outcrops and from bands of \u201cice-rafted debris<\/a>\u201d in sediment cores from the marine shelf and deep sea bordering Marie Byrd Land and Thurston Island, Antarctica.<\/p>\n

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The Linchpin<\/strong> project<\/a> investigates seafloor geologic records from times when icebergs dropped large volumes of sands and pebbles, called iceberg-rafted debris (IRD) in deep water of the Amundsen Sea. The research makes use of sediment cores obtained by 2019 ocean drilling in deep water, just offshore from the most vulnerable sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). Siddoway and CC students are using petrology, geochronology, and isotope data to compare the ice-transported rock clasts and sand grains to rock outcrops on land, to determine probable source areas. Sediment age and ocean characteristics are provided by micropaleontology studies conducted by collaborators from Northern Illinois University<\/a>.\u00a0 By analyzing conditions of high diatom and IRD accumulation in deep ocean sediment, where \u2018local\u2019 coastal influences can be avoided, we will assess oceanographic and climatic conditions associated with past ice sheet collapse events.\u00a0 Diatoms provide powerful evidence of temperature and ocean productivity changes in the past, that, when linked to time, can translate into rates of ice sheet drawdown.<\/p>\n

IODP379<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>obtained sediment cores from the deep ocean bordering the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica, in order to understand the dynamic history of the largely marine-based West Antarctic ice sheet, which is highly sensitive to climatic and oceanographic change. Onboard the Joides Resolution in 2019, Christine applied petrological expertise<\/a> and on-land geological knowledge to the task of identification\/classification of abundant rock fragments in numerous intervals of the cores — work that will continue for the foreseeable future!<\/p>\n