Testing the Freshwater Routing Hypothesis for Abrupt Climate Change with a Hudson River Paleodischarge Record

• Main Author: Jones, Andrew G.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Boston College 2015
• Subjects: Paleoclimate; Pleistocene; Freshwater routing; Foraminifera; Hudson River
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104217

Thesis advisor: Jeremy Shakun === The mechanisms of abrupt climate change during the last glacial period are not yet fully understood. The objective of this research is to use oxygen isotope and magnesium/calcium ratios from foraminifera in a marine sediment core <200 km southeast of New York City (Ocean Drilling Program 174 Site 1073A) to test the hypothesis that changes in freshwater run-off patterns during intermediate extensions of the Laurentide Ice Sheet caused abrupt climate change by disrupting the Atlantic thermohaline circulation. The combination of foraminiferal δ18O and Mg/Ca yields salinity as an isolated variable, which is used as a proxy for Hudson River discharge through ~42,000-28,000 years ago. This thesis reviews the literature on abrupt climate change and compares the Hudson River paleodischarge record to established records of abrupt climate events observed in Greenland ice cores. It concludes that a higher resolution of data points is required to evaluate the impact of Hudson River discharge on abrupt climate change. === Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2015. === Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. === Discipline: Departmental Honors. === Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences.