Workshop on Cretaceous Climate and Ocean Dynamics

July 14-17, 2002
Florissant, Colorado, USA

Sponsored by the
National Science Foundation and JOI/USSSP


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Meeting Updates

Field trip recommendations - We will be going into areas of sagebrush and sharp boulders, and over loose rocks on moderate to steep slopes. The field trip leaders strongly recommend that you wear long pants and sturdy shoes or hiking boots. Bring a water bottle, hat, sunglasses and sunscreen. A bag lunch will be provided.

Evening Social Hours - The Nature Place does not serve alcoholic beverages. We have therefore arranged private rooms where refreshments (beer, wine and non-alcoholic drinks) and snacks will be served in the evenings. We ask that each participant make a one-time contribution of $20 at registration to cover the cost of these functions.

View the - meeting program - list of participants - abstracts - field guide - stratigraphic section
The field guide and strat section are in pdf format and are password-protected.
. . . . . . userid = aptian; password = (what follows Aptian?)



Workshop Objectives | Planned Themes for Discussion | General Meeting Format | Abstracts | Location, Accommodations and Meals | Registration | Organizing Committee

Workshop Objectives -

The Cretaceous represents one of the most dynamic climate intervals in Earth history, from the extreme warmth of the Turonian when global mean surface temperature was more than 10°C warmer than today, to the cool climates of the Aptian and Maastrichtian when polar ice-sheets may have existed. It was also a time of unusually high production of oceanic crust at spreading centers and through the eruption of Large Igneous Provinces. The Cretaceous may have exhibited the highest rate of carbon dioxide outgassing from global volcanism, the strongest hydrologic cycle, and the highest sea level of the past 250 million years. These conditions dramatically influenced ocean circulation, continental and marine sedimentation, and the evolution and extinction of Earth's terrestrial and marine biota.

The last time a stand-alone conference on Cretaceous climate took place was in 1983 (Penrose Meeting on Cretaceous Climate, Florissant, Colorado). The nearly two decades since then have seen a revolution in the amount and quality of paleoclimatic data and techniques available for understanding the Cretaceous climate system. Yet the forcing mechanisms that led to and sustained intervals of climate warmth and that caused transitions between warm and cool climates are still poorly understood.
While discoveries of the past several decades have broadened our empirical knowledge of Cretaceous climate, they also underscore deficiencies in our understanding of the forcing mechanisms to explain them. This conference has been organized to bring together a diverse group of scientists to better constrain the nature and mechanics of Cretaceous atmospheric and oceanic circulation. International participation is key to broadening perspectives and integrating global Cretaceous climate records.



Planned Themes for Discussion -

  • Proxy climate records - How well can we reconstruct temperatures, marine productivity, atmospheric composition and ocean circulation? What new proxy methods can be applied to the Cretaceous?
  • Large Igneous Provinces - What was their age and duration? What were rates of production and environmental effects?
  • Oceanic Anoxic Events - What features (sea level, temperature change, carbon chemistry) do the OAEs have in common and how do they differ? What was their distribution? Were they globally synchronous? Why the Cretaceous?
  • The mid-Maastrichtian deepwater event - Was it caused by sea level change? climate cooling? tectonics?
  • The mid-Cretaceous hyperthermal - What were the principle causes? How did the dynamical state of the ocean/atmosphere system differ from the cool Cretaceous and from today?
  • The cool Cretaceous - How robust is evidence for continental ice-sheets during the Cretaceous? Can polar ice and extreme tropical warmth be reconciled during the Cenomanian-Turonian?
  • Third-order global eustatic sea level change - Glacially forced? Other possible mechanisms?
  • Cretaceous thermohaline circulation - Were there discrete "modes" and transitions between them?
  • Orbital-frequency variations in Cretaceous sediments - What feedbacks existed to amplify and dampen orbitally-forced insolation effects?
  • Rates of oceanic crust subduction and CO2 outgassing - What were the biological, chemical and climatic responses? How closely timed were events and responses?
  • Cretaceous carbon cycles and feedbacks - How did rates of inorganic and organic carbon burial vary? What were the causes and effects of such variations?
  • Future Directions - What should be the critical research goals and potential Cretaceous drilling targets for IODP?

General Meeting Format -

The meeting will consist of half-day topical technical sessions, discussion, poster sessions, and keynote addresses. A one-day field trip to the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary at Rock Canyon is included. The workshop program can be viewed here.

POSTER FORMAT
Posters should be no larger than 122 cm (48 in.) high by 244 cm (96 in.) long. Posters will be hung on carpeted walls of the conference room using push pins and so should be printed on paper or laminated paper. Thicker or heavier materials will not work well.
Please also bring 1 viewgraph summarizing your poster highlights. Posters will be posted for the entire meeting.

ORAL PRESENTATION MEDIA
The conference room will be equiped with two screens, slide projectors, and overhead transparency projectors. A laptop and computer projection system will be available. Any digital projection presentation must be 1) readable by Powerpoint 2000 and 2) saved on a zip disk or CD that is readable by a PC Windows machine. If any video clips are included, they must be compatible with Windows Media Player.

Meeting Abstracts -

Abstracts submitted for oral and poster presentations may be searched using first author, title, and keyword fields.


Click here to search workshop abstracts





Location, Accommodations and Meals -

The workshop will be held at The Nature Place, a year-round Rocky Mountain conference and education center located in Florissant, Colorado, approximately one hour west of Colorado Springs.

The Nature Center is accessible by car from Interstate 25 from Colorado Springs. Rental cars are available in both Denver (DEN) and Colorado Springs (COS) airports. Commercial firms offer shuttle service between DEN and COS at the rate of $30-$35 (per person, one-way). You should make plans or reservations directly with these firms yourself, if you plan to arrive in Denver airport.

The conference organizers will schedule van shuttle service from Colorado Springs airport directly to and from the workshop location. Shuttles will run approximately every 1.5 hours from 1-9 PM on July 13. Return shuttle times will be announced at the meeting.

Lodging is on-site and is included in the workshop registration fee.

Meals will be served in The Nature Place Lodge. The cost of all meals is also included in the workshop registration fee.

Arrangements will be made to accommodate those with special needs. Please contact one of the organizers (below).

Look here for information about Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and local sightseeing.

Workshop Fees -

The workshop registration deadline has passed, with attendance filled to capacity (94).

The workshop registration fee includes accommodations, meals, field trip, registration packet, and an optional round trip airport shuttle fee ($35). Airfare costs are not included in the meeting registration fee and are the responsibility of the registrant. Every effort has been made to defray the cost of travel for those who requested support. Travel reimbursements will be made post-meeting on submission of receipts to Joint Oceanographic Institutions. You may apply for a travel advance by filling out the form here. The $330 committed to each attendee to defray the cost of lodging will be billed directly to the organizers, so do not include this $330 in any travel advance form submitted to JOI.

Financial support from the National Science Foundation and JOI/USSSP has defrayed workshop costs and provided travel support. Financial support for individuals and workshop planning expenses has also been provided by the Smithsonian Institution and the Ocean and Climate Change Institute of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.


Workshop Organizing Committee -

Tim Bralower
University of North Carolina
bralower@email.unc.edu
phone: 1-919-962-0704

Karen Bice
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
kbice@whoi.edu
phone: 1-508-289-3320

Brian Huber
Smithsonian Institution
Huber.Brian@NMNH.SI.EDU
phone: 1-202-786-2658

Mark Leckie
University of Massachusetts
mleckie@geo.umass.edu
phone: 1-413-545-1948

Bob Duncan
Oregon State University
rduncan@oce.orst.edu
phone: 1-541-737-5206

Brad Sageman
Northwestern University
brad@earth.northwestern.edu
phone: 1-847-467-2257


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