Dr Iwatani, a postdoc fellow in Yasuhara Lab, has just published his new paper on the top geology journal, Geology published from the Geological Society of America, in collaboration with scientists in Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. In this paper, he discovered deep-ocean water dynamics in the Indo-Pacific region. Surface current in the region is known as Indonesian Throughflow and is important as this throughflow transfers considerable amount of heat from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. However, deeper waters, especially their past dynamics, in the region remains poorly investigated or understood, despite of their importance in Earth’s climate system. Dr Iwatani revealed that deep-ocean water in the region was significantly weakened during a globally-known rapid climate change event, “Younger Dryas” about 12,000 years ago because of the weakened Indonesian Throughflow. He also found significant shift in the deep-ocean water at around 7000 years ago, probably due to the mixure of different deep-ocean waters. This research was highlighted as the cover of a issue in Geology (attached). These are important findings to better understand tropical climate in our rapidly changing world.
Link to the paper: