Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/D000041/1
The middle Miocene climate transition: Unravelling changes in climate and ocean circulation
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor C Lear, Cardiff University, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences
- Grant held at:
- Cardiff University, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences
- Science Area:
- Marine
- Earth
- Overall Classification:
- Marine
- ENRIs:
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- Ocean Circulation
- Ocean - Atmosphere Interact.
- Glacial & Cryospheric Systems
- Climate & Climate Change
- Abstract:
- This proposal aims to study the dramatic expansion of the Antarctic ice sheet fourteen million years ago. Our current understanding of ice sheets suggests that either more snow precipitated on Antarctica, or more snow escaped seasonal melting. There is no evidence for global-scale cooling caused by declining carbon dioxide. Previous researchers have therefore proposed that the ice sheet expansion was triggered by a local change in temperature or precipitation around Antarctica, caused by changing ocean circulation patterns. This proposal will generate data to reconstruct the changing circulation patterns, and so help to determine whether the smaller ice sheet that existed before 14 Ma was limited by temperatures or moisture. How temperature and precipitation compete in determining ice sheet stability is an important question when temperatures on the Antarctic peninsula have warmed by 2.5 degrees over the last 50 years.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/D000041/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- New Investigators Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- New Investigators
This grant award has a total value of £51,053
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Staff | Total - Other Costs | Total - Indirect Costs | Total - Equipment |
|---|---|---|---|
| £19,785 | £18,584 | £9,101 | £3,584 |
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