Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Earth's climate is highly variable on both long- and short-term time-scales. The Pacific ocean-atmosphere processes which contribute to this variability can be interpreted from a combination of: a) surveys of the modern ocean conditions along coastal British Columbia, and b) ""laminated"" ocean sediment records. These ""paleo"" or ""past"" sediment records extend our knowledge of variations in the natural climate system well beyond the reach of the existing century-long instrument record and help us to understand climate changes which occurred thousands of years ago. In turn, this enhanced knowledge of our climate system increases our understanding of the rapid climate changes we are now experiencing. Similarly, the nature and frequency of past great earthquakes along the Pacific coast of Canada can be interpreted from these same laminated ocean sediment records. This research program involves ocean research cruises to obtain oceanographic data and piston cores of laminated ocean sediments along the previously uninvestigated mid and northern B.C. coast. These data and cores will be subsequently analyzed in the laboratory for clues to the functioning of the northern Pacific climate system, both what occurred in the past and what we may expect in the future. The results will contain insights into the causes, dynamics, critical thresholds and past impacts of natural rapid climate changes, as well as seismic activity along the B.C. coast, on time scales of human interest. The conclusions will fill critical knowledge gaps, not only for the understanding of physical sciences researchers studying the Pacific Ocean, but also for planners, policy-makers and the public in order to minimize their future risk under rapid climate changes and possible large earthquake events. An improved understanding of Pacific paleoclimate is also critical for validating global and regional climate models which are currently being used to forecast future climate change.