Teaching Kits and Models

Cretaceous Impact Kit (ODP 171)

Sixty five million years ago, a 10 km wide meteorite crashed into what is now Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, creating, a 177 km wide crater and mass extinctions across the globe. This kit contains materials for audiences to explore the core evidence for the impact.

Glacial / Interglacial Core Model (IODP 303)

Expedition 303 drilled cores from the North Atlantic that helped build a timeline of climate change over the last several million years of Earth’s history. This data has provided invaluable insight into the most recent “Ice Ages” or glacial periods of cold climate with a lot of land and sea ice, and warmer periods of little to no ice called interglacial periods. This core contains evidence of a shift from an interglacial to a glacial period approximately 0.9 million years ago.

Palmer Deep Core Model (ODP 178)

This model is a replica of a core retrieved in the Antarctic Peninsula on ODP Leg 178. It shows seasonal layers (laminae) composed of different diatom species that were deposited during the late Holocene and provides evidence for the changing climate and glacial retreat that took place in the region after the last ice age. This core section also contains a drop stone.

PETM Core Model (IODP 208)

This Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) core from the Walvis Ridge in the South Atlantic shows the distinct boundary between the two time periods when a warming climate initiated a rapid release of carbon resulting in extreme ocean acidification.

Saanich Inlet Core Model (ODP 178)

The sediment cored at Saanich Inlet off Vancouver Island, British Columbia contains evidence of catastrophic flooding events – called Jokulhlaups (Icelandic, o-kul-loop) that took place at the end of the Pleistocene and Early Holocene. This is when the Ice Age came to an end and increasing global temperatures caused glacial dams to form large lakes that eventually drained dramatically when the dams melted and broke. This core shows an abrupt 30cm layer of silty clay containing preserved pollen and freshwater microfossils (diatoms and silicoflagellates) whose source can be traced back to glacial lakes 200km inland. This layer is positioned between two laminated layers of mud containing marine microfossils.

Tahitian Sea Level Change Core (Expedition 310)

Expedition 310 collected evidence of changes in sea level during the last deglaciation, including a record of temperature and salinity changes in the southern Pacific. The two 60cm replicas of 310-20A-22R-2 display coral sandstone and massive coral (Porites) in growth position with interbedded microbiolites (organosedimentary deposits). Cavities are filled with Halimeda (calcareous algae) segments, gastropods, bivalves and microbiolites.