Microscope Break, 2013

Marci Robinson is taking a break from identifying microfossils for a selfie and a much needed cup of coffee. Identifying different species of foraminifera, a process that involves paying close attention to tiny differences in the appearance of each sand grain-sized specimen, is fascinating. Because each species has its own preferred range of ocean temperature and salinity, as well as other water parameters, we can reconstruct what the ocean was like when our fossil specimens were alive. 

Her current project, Geological Investigations of the Neogene, explores past warmer-than-modern climates of the mid-Miocene (about 14-17 million years ago) and Piacenzian (about 3 million years ago) to assess the potential environmental and economic impacts to population centers along the US Atlantic coast under different rates and magnitudes of changes related to warmer temperatures. 

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