RAPID: Investigating the Link between Fluvial Flood Events, Remobilization, and Preservation in the Stratigraphic Record along the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico Continental Shelf

GSTDTAP

项目编号	1548598
	RAPID: Investigating the Link between Fluvial Flood Events, Remobilization, and Preservation in the Stratigraphic Record along the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico Continental Shelf
	Joseph Carlin
主持机构	California State University-Fullerton Foundation
项目开始年	2015
	2015-09-01
项目结束日期	2016-08-31
资助机构	US-NSF
项目类别	Standard Grant
项目经费	24968(USD)
国家	美国
语种	英语
英文摘要	This proposal was co-funded by the Sedimentary Geology and and Paleobiology Program (EAR/GEO) and the Marine Geology and Geophysics Program (OCE/GEO) Abstract Sediment dispersal in the marine environment from small and moderately sized rivers can often be significantly impacted by episodic events such as large floods. Unlike large rivers with extensive sediment routing systems or large estuaries at their mouths, these smaller rivers have a more direct sediment path to the ocean, thus maintaining a better signal of the flood event. These episodic-event dominated rivers typically reflect climate variability rather than seasonal cycles. This results in the record of past flood events preserved in the marine sedimentary deposit that can give insight into climatic variations over longer time scales. Understanding these past climatic variations regionally will be critical for anticipating future variations due to climate change. Unfortunately, developing strong proxies for river floods using the marine sedimentary record is not a straightforward application due to the complexities of sediment dispersal along continental margins. This project aims to take advantage of recent, near historic floods on the Brazos River, a moderately sized, episodic river draining into the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), to investigate how a flood deposit is ultimately preserved in the continental shelf sediment record. As large floods within this river typically result from El Niño conditions, flood deposits preserved in the sedimentary record will reflect past periods of intense flooding associated with El Niño events in the northwestern GOM. The goal of this study is to develop a high-discharge/El Niño proxy for the northwestern GOM based on this most recent flood event that may be useful for future paleo-climate studies. To accomplish this, PIs plan to collect sediment cores during two sampling cruises along the shelf between the river mouth and the distal depocenter, a feature known as the Texas Mud Blanket (TMB). These cruises will take place at approximately 3 and 6 months following peak discharge to investigate: 1) how the flood deposit changes over this time period; 2) the fraction that may be transported to the TMB during a single event; and 3) the preservation potential of event layers in the TMB. To answer these questions they will delineate the flood layer in the cores by analyzing a variety of sedimentological properties including: physical characteristics, short-lived radioisotopes (e.g. 7Be and 234Th), and elemental composition from XRF core logging. Understanding these depositional characteristics will help to establish an appropriate environmental proxy for such events. Some of the broader impacts from this study include funding an early career scientist, and engaging and training undergraduate and graduate students in geoscience research, many of which will be from traditionally under represented groups.
来源学科分类	Geosciences - Earth Sciences
文献类型	项目
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/68533
专题	环境与发展全球科技态势
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Joseph Carlin.RAPID: Investigating the Link between Fluvial Flood Events, Remobilization, and Preservation in the Stratigraphic Record along the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico Continental Shelf.2015.