Faculty advisor: Dr. Debbie Thomas (Texas A&M University)

Research topic: The Late Cretaceous - Early Paleogene Record of South Pacific Deep Water (using Nd isotopes)

Presentations:

• Berger, A., Thomas, D., Zarikian, C. “The Late Cretaceous–Early Paleogene Record of South Pacific Deep Water–Nd Isotopes from IODP Site 1370,” presented at Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, College of Geosciences Student Research Week, and Texas A&M University Student Research Week (2012).

Poster presented at the AGU meeting in 2012.

​I started research as a freshman after meeting Dr. Thomas at a freshman seminar series on paleoclimatology. I spent a year with Dr. Thomas studying how changes in heat transport by ocean currents affected climate during the Late Cretaceous – Early Paleogene, 30 to 70 million years ago. The goal of this research was to understand why the warmest interval of the past 90 million years shifted to a cooler climate. I reconstructed thermohaline circulation during this time interval using mass spectrometry analyses of the Nd isotopic composition of fossil fish teeth and debris. These values can indicate changes in the wind or ocean currents that transport this isotope. My analyses revealed a likely homogenization of deep waters around Antarctica about 27 million years ago, thus marking the formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current that isolated Antarctica and led to global cooling. I presented this research in several posters at university and departmental Student Research Weeks, and at the AGU meeting in December 2012.