Theresa Fritz-Endres Ocean Sediment Cores Provide a Glimpse into Deep Time

Inspiration Dissemination

First year CEOAS PhD student Theresa Fritz-Endres investigates how the productivity of the ocean in the equatorial Pacific has changed in the last 20,000 years since the time of the last glacial maximum. This was the last time large ice sheets blanketed much of North America, northern Europe, and Asia. She investigates this change by examining the elemental composition of foraminifera (or ’forams’ for short) shells obtained from sediment cores extracted from the ocean floor. Obtaining these records requires drilling cores (up to 1000 m!) into deep sea sediments, work that is carried out by an international consortium of scientists aboard large ocean research vessels. These cores span a time frame of 800 million years, which is the oldest continuous record of ocean chemistry. Theresa is early in her PhD program, and in the next few years plans to do field work on the Oregon coast and on Catalina island off the coast of California. Please find us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/ Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/ Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm Host University: oregonstate.edu This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.