Caribbean Gateway Workshop, Austin, TX

Held in March 2006, the Caribbean Gateway Workshop, entitled "Interaction of Neogene Tectonics, Stratigraphy and Ocean Circulation in the Southeastern Caribbean," was developed to discuss and plan potential scientific ocean drilling in the Caribbean Sea and its approaches. The principal goals were to formulate key scientific questions, evaluate existing geologic and geophysical data, use these data to identify and prioritize drilling sites, discuss drilling platform options, and begin coordinating subsequent geophysical surveys, proposals, and multi-proxy analyses. The workshop was attended by Ms Isha Renta, a masters student in atmospheric sciences at Howard University (Washington, DC) and a participant in the MS PHD'S Program.

The Caribbean Sea is well recognized to occupy a critical location as a gateway between major ocean basins, in both an east-west direction (Atlantic-Pacific connection) and in a north-south direction (North Atlantic-South Atlantic connection including the Loop Current and Gulf Stream). As its complex tectonic history becomes better understood, there are increasing opportunities for placing the region into an improved paleoceanographic framework necessary to understand its role as a critical inter-seaway "valve" that controlled the paleoceanography and paleoclimate of both the region and the Earth. For example, closure of the Caribbean valve between the Atlantic and Pacific as a result of the collision of the Panama arc with northwestern South America is widely recognized as a major change in interoceanic circulation with consequent climatic effects including strengthening of northern hemisphere glaciations.