Florence Bascom Geoscience Center
Publications
The PRISM4 (mid-Piacenzian) paleoenvironmental reconstruction
The mid-Piacenzian is known as a period of relative warmth when compared to the present day. A comprehensive understanding of conditions during the Piacenzian serves as both a conceptual model and a source for boundary conditions as well as means of verification of global climate model experiments. In this paper we present the PRISM4...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Dolan, Aisling M.; Rowley, David; Moucha, Robert; Forte, Alessandro; Mitrovica, Jerry X.; Pound, Matthew; Salzmann, Ulrich; Robinson, Marci M.; Chandler, Mark; Foley, Kevin M.; Haywood, Alan M. The intertropical convergence zone modulates intense hurricane strikes on the western North Atlantic margin
Most Atlantic hurricanes form in the Main Development Region between 9°N to 20°N along the northern edge of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Previous research has suggested that meridional shifts in the ITCZ position on geologic timescales can modulate hurricane activity, but continuous and long-term storm records are needed from...
van Hengstrum, Peter J.; Donnelly, Jeffrey P.; Fall, Patricia L.; Toomey, Michael; Albury, Nancy A.; Kakuk, Brian A new specimen of Agorophius pygmaeus (Agorophiidae, Odontoceti, Cetacea) from the Early Oligocene Ashley Formation of South Carolina, USA
The holotype partial skull of Agorophius pygmaeus (the monotypic form for both the genus Agorophius and the Family Agorophiidae) has been missing for approximately 140 years. Since the discovery of Agorophius pygmaeus, many additional taxa and specimens have been placed in the Family Agorophiidae, only to be reclassified...
Godfrey, Stephen J.; Uhen, Mark D.; Osborne, Jason E.; Edwards, Lucy E. Geologic evolution of the lower Connecticut River valley: Influence of bedrock geology, glacial deposits, and sea level
This fieldtrip illustrates the character of the lower Connecticut River bedrock valley, in particular its depth, and the lithology and structure of bedrock units it crosses. It examines the character and distribution of the glaciodeltaic terraces that partially fill the valley and discusses the depth of postglacial incision into them.
Stone, Janet Radway; Lewis, Ralph S. Climate change
Climate change (including climate variability) refers to regional or global changes in mean climate state or in patterns of climate variability over decades to millions of years often identified using statistical methods and sometimes referred to as changes in long-term weather conditions (IPCC, 2012). Climate is influenced by changes in continent...
Cronin, Thomas M. Cenozoic sea level and the rise of modern rimmed atolls
Sea-level records from atolls, potentially spanning the Cenozoic, have been largely overlooked, in part because the processes that control atoll form (reef accretion, carbonate dissolution, sediment transport, vertical motion) are complex and, for many islands, unconstrained on million-year timescales. Here we combine existing observations of...
Toomey, Michael; Ashton, Andrew; Raymo, Maureen E.; Perron, J. Taylor Sensitivity of Pliocene Arctic climate to orbital forcing, atmospheric CO2 and sea ice albedo parameterisation
General circulation model (GCM) simulations of the mid-Pliocene Warm Period (mPWP, 3.264 to 3.025 Myr ago) do not reproduce the magnitude of Northern Hemisphere high latitude surface air and sea surface temperature (SAT and SST) warming that proxy data indicate. There is also large uncertainty regarding the state of sea ice cover in the mPWP....
Howell, Fergus W.; Haywood, Alan M.; Dowsett, Harry J.; Pickering, Steven J. Quantification of a pretreatment procedure for organic-rich calcareous nannofossil samples
No abstract available.
Shamrock, Jamie L.; Self-Trail, Jean M. Proposed Auxiliary Boundary Stratigraphic Section and Point (ASSP) for the base of the Ordovician System at Lawson Cove, Utah, USA
The Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Ordovician System is at the First Appearance Datum (FAD) of the conodont Iapetognathus fluctivagus at Green Point in Newfoundland, Canada. Strata there are typical graptolitic facies that were deposited near the base of the continental slope.We propose establishing an...
Miller, James F.; Evans, Kevin R.; Ethington, Raymond L.; Freeman, Rebecca; Loch, James D.; Repetski, John E.; Ripperdan, Robert; Taylor, John F. A multiagency and multijurisdictional approach to mapping the glacial deposits of the Great Lakes region in three dimensions
The Great Lakes Geologic Mapping Coalition (GLGMC), consisting of state geological surveys from all eight Great Lakes states, the Ontario Geological Survey, and the U.S. Geological Survey, was conceived out of a societal need for unbiased and scientifically defensible geologic information on the shallow subsurface, particularly the delineation,...
Berg, Richard C.; Brown, Steven E.; Thomason, Jason F.; Hasenmueller, Nancy R.; Letsinger, Sally L.; Kincare, Kevin A.; Esch, John M.; Kehew, Alan E.; Thorleifson, L. Harvey; Kozlowski, Andrew L.; Bird, Brian C.; Pavey, Richard R.; Bajc, Andy F.; Burt, Abigail K.; Fleeger, Gary M.; Carson, Eric C. The Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP) Phase 2: Scientific objectives and experimental design
The Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP) is a co-ordinated international climate modelling initiative to study and understand climate and environments of the Late Pliocene, as well as their potential relevance in the context of future climate change. PlioMIP examines the consistency of model predictions in simulating Pliocene climate...
Haywood, Alan M.; Dowsett, Harry J.; Dolan, Aisling M.; Rowley, David; Abe-Ouchi, Ayako; Otto-Bliesner, Bette; Chandler, Mark A.; Hunter, Stephen J.; Lunt, Daniel J.; Pound, Matthew; Salzmann, Ulrich The “Anthropocene” epoch: Scientific decision or political statement?
The proposal for the “Anthropocene” epoch as a formal unit of the geologic time scale has received extensive attention in scientific and public media. However, most articles on the Anthropocene misrepresent the nature of the units of the International Chronostratigraphic Chart, which is produced by the International Commission on...
Finney, Stanley C.; Edwards, Lucy E.