Image description: Katie, a white woman with brown hair, wearing blue jeans, a white turtle neck, and a black coat, is standing in front of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It’s a beautiful day and the sun is illuminating the rocks. Katie is very happy to be there!
Katie Jamson
Canada
August 18, 2026
The response of deep sea sediments to Cenozoic paleoclimate and paleoceanographic events
Pelagic sediments are exceptionally well preserved and provide an invaluable insight into changes in paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic events through the Cenozoic. Quantifying how sedimentation has evolved both temporally and spatially offers a unique perspective of how these interactions impact upon production, deposition, and preservation of sediments across various scales. In particular, biogenic sediments (calcareous and siliceous oozes) can provide an understanding of biogeochemical cycles and changes in upwelling patterns as tectonic gateways open and close, though there have not been as many studies on a global scale investigating these, in particular focusing on spatial change.My analyses focus on three regions in the Pacific Ocean: the Equatorial Pacific, the Kuroshio Current, and the Tasman Gateway. Changes in siliceous deposition in the Equatorial Pacific shows how the Pacific Walker Circulation has changed through time, and the gradient of biogenic sedimentation from east-west that becomes increasingly obvious towards the present day indicates the formation of the Western Pacific Warm Pool. From the Miocene to the Quaternary, there is evidence in the Northwest Pacific for the establishment of the Kuroshio Current and its offshoot currents such as the Tsushima Warm Current and the Kuroshio Current Extension, evidenced by changes in silicate sedimentation. In addition, the northward movement of Australia away from Antarctica shows how the opening of the Tasman Gateway impacted the sediment record, and how shallow water carbonates began to develop around the continent from the Oligocene onward. The code used to create the map outputs in this study will be open access and conform to the FAIR data principles, ensuring this work can be replicated in the future, especially with further refinement of the chronology.
Coming soon!
Image description: TBD
Sanjukta Chakravorti
Germany
August 25, 2026
Vertebrate Palaeontology
TBD
Pal(a)eoPERCS 