Jess Adkins: Exploring the Deep-Sea for Corals and Clues to Our Climatic Past

Presented By:

Caltech Committee on Institute Programs

This event was digitally recorded and is available for viewing on the Caltech Theater site. Many past Watson Lectures are available for viewing online on the Caltech Theater site, and are available for purchase: DVD Order Form (PDF)

While many of us have been awed by the NOVA specials and Cousteau documentaries about the warm, sunlit, surface ocean, it is the deep, dark, mysterious abyss that holds important clues about the earth's climate past. Dr. Adkins will show how submarines, robots, lowered cameras, and dredges are used to find deep-sea corals. These archives of past climate are related to their surface cousins and can structure huge thriving communities hundreds to thousands of meters below the surface. He will explore how chemical measurements of the coral skeletons can reveal the timing and mechanisms of climate change in the past. All of this will be done with an eye towards how it helps us better understand the global experiment we are conducting today with the rapid increase in greenhouse gases.

Jess F. Adkins is Associate Professor of Geochemistry and Global Environmental Science at Caltech.

Jess Adkins