Lakes are dynamic response systems that record the complex interaction between land and aquatic environments and their respective ecosystems. Lake sediments are among the best continental archives to establish time series changes in lithology, sedimentology, geomagnetism, terrestrial and aquatic paleoecology, carbon-cycle elements, and geochemical and isotopic signatures. By establishing coherent regional paleoclimate patterns, data can be compared across continental climate zone transects and on global scales to test global earth system modeling and hypotheses of climate change.

Lake sediments offer certain tangible advantages over other climate archives; both modern and ancient lake deposits are widely distributed and accessible over the continents. Sedimentation rates of these archives are typically high and continuous, and the sediments contain a variety of signals sensitive to geosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere components. Because lakes also exhibit individual complexities, it is important to reconstruct paleoclimate records from a network of sediment cores in order to understand how each unique lake system is responding to regional and global forcing.

DOSECC has three drilling systems in operation that are designed to accomplish a variety of projects in lakes and shallow marine environments. DOSECC designed and built the GLAD800 and GLAD200 lake coring systems and completed several coring projects (see links above).

The projects have been completed with high core recovery rates and have fostered studies of climate history, seismic hazards and environmental assessment. In addition, DOSECC designed and built an active heave compensated drilling rig (AHC800) that can be used in large lake and shallow marine settings. In addition, we have Dynamic Positioning capabilities that can be used on platform barges or ships where it is necessary to maintain position "over-hole" during coring operations.