My thesis is a comparison of Late Holocene oceanographic and sedimentologic records from the Amundsen Gulf.

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.

What Is My Thesis About ?What Is My Thesis About ?

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 >63µm and 45-63µm.

By: Tamara J. Moss

The Questions I am Addressing…The Questions I am Addressing…

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.

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

PHOTO OF MAP WITH BOXCORES

High sedimentation

Low sedimentation

Rocky glacial bottom, (the top of boxcore 415B)

High sedimentation from the MacKenzie River Delta (the top of boxcore 403)

Why is this important research ?Why is this important research ?

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 My Approach and Methods

ApproachApproach

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.

……My Approach and Methods My Approach and 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 >63µm 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 Scott’s eyes

Analyzing the various data taken in the area of my two boxcores (multibeam sonar, sub-bottom profile)

My Results as of Today…My Results as of Today…

MethodsMethods

None. I’m still sampling!None. I’m still sampling!