Collaborative Research: Reconstructing Holocene Climate Variability and the Indonesian Throughflow in the Western Equatorial Pacific

Summary: This proposal requests support to collect a series of high accumulation rate cores from the Indonesian region. Analyses of the cores will be used to document the nature of centennial-millennial variability in the Western Pacific Warm Pool and Indonesian throughflow. The field program will obtain a series of cores in depth transects beginning at about 200m water depth along the main route of the Indonesian throughflow including the Makassar Strait, Sulawesi Sea and Timor channels. The post cruise analytical program will focus on establishing a basic stratigraphic framework for selected cores using planktic foraminifer oxygen isotope measurements and AMS 14C dating. In addition surface sediment samples will be used for an initial temperature calibration study on shallow water benthic foraminifer Mg/Ca.