Obtaining sea sediment core samples from the Pacific

Pacific Ocean Climate Variability: Marine Records of North American Precipitation Patterns

Obtaining sediment core samples such as seen in this picture supports a project to reconstruct patterns of climate variability along the Pacific coasts of North America during the last 15,000 years. This project is one half of the Pacific Ocean Climate Variability partnership that analyzes several proxies for climatic conditions. Proxies include pollen, charcoal, geochemical isotopes, and certain types of microalgae and amoeba. These proxies are gathered from sediment cores from the ocean, estuaries, and lakes. We produce records of sea surface temperature and surface productivity along the Pacific coast. These records are compared with terrestrial records primarily from California and Nevada. The records can also be used in regional and global reconstructions of the past 1,200 years.