My thesis is a comparison of Late Holocene oceanographic and sedimentologic records from the Amundse

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What Is My Thesis About ?
Thesis
By Tamara J. Moss
Since I am doing a combined honours in Earth
Sciences and Oceanography, it only seems fitting
to have a thesis that can relate to both subjects.
My thesis is a comparison of Late Holocene
oceanographic and sedimentologic records from the
Amundsen Gulf.
The Amundsen Gulf is located offshore Northwest
Territories. The CCGS Amundsen was in the
Beaufort Sea from 2003-2004. I have two boxcores
that are about 22cm long, that were from water
depths of about 50m.
Foraminifera will be sampled at gt63µm and 45-63µm.
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The Questions I am Addressing
Thesis

• One boxcore is from an area of high
  sedimentation (near the MacKenzie River Delta)
  the other is in an area of low sedimentation and
  is Pleistocene glacial till with ice scours.
• The questions that I will be addressing are
  related to the comparison of these two
  environments.

Low sedimentation
High sedimentation
PHOTO OF MAP WITH BOXCORES

• Sieving at two different sizes will allow me to
  see if there are any increases and decreases in
  certain species (eg. deep water forams)

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Rocky glacial bottom, (the top of boxcore 415B)
High sedimentation from the MacKenzie River Delta
(the top of boxcore 403)
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Why is this important research ?
Thesis

• Finding certain foram species in an interval
  describe the ancient environment.
• Is the aquatic environment deep ocean,
  brackish, freshwater
• correlations to the amount of sea ice cover
• glacial activity
• dating (14C 210Pb)

My Approach and Methods
Approach
The approach I intend to take is what my
supervisor says he does and that is to simply see
what the results tell you, and go from there. I
also would like to discussing results with others
who have CASES boxcores.
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My Approach and Methods
Thesis
Methods

• The CASES cruise took various oceanographic and
  sedimentary measurements day and night
  (salinity/nutrients/temp)
• Core description, photographs at B.I.O. and
  x-rays at Dalhousie
• Extracting mud in 1cm intervals
• Sieving/washing each interval at gt63µm and
  45-63µm
• Describing each divided interval and extracting
  different species and gluing them to plates
• Identifying all species using existing plates,
  taxonomic notes, and Dave Scotts eyes
• Analyzing the various data taken in the area of
  my two boxcores (multibeam sonar, sub-bottom
  profile)

My Results as of Today
None. Im still sampling!