Sachs Lab Expeditions

These are some of the fieldtrips we have taken to gather sediment samples for paleoclimate reconstructions. Two main threads of our research are (1) determining rainfall and termperature variations in the tropical Pacific during the last 2,000 years and (2) developing and improving rain & temperature estimates prior to the use of thermometers, rain gauges and satellites.

Some places we have been, and things we have seen


El Junco Lake, San Crisobal Island, Galapagos	Christmas Island Public Library	Washington Island, Republic of Kiribati	Hypersaline Pond on Chrismas Island	Spooky Lake, Palau, Coring Platform	NIce Interface Core, Palau
					Paul Colinvaux, Miriam Steinitz-Kannan, Julian Sachs, Rienk Smittenberg (kneeling), Mike Miller
Lugging Coring Gear through the Jungle, Palau	Coconut Crab! Palau	Galapagos '04 Team, Charles Darwin Research Center, Santa Cruz, Galapagos	Darwin's Finches, Galapagos	Cotopaxi, Ecuador	El Junco Coring Team, Galapagos

Paul Colinvaux, The Master, El Junco Galapagos	Marine Iguanas, Galapagos	Hell Hole, Palau	Jellyfish Lake, Palau	Rock Islands of Palau	Palau Sunset
			Jeff Bowman & Chase Stoudt, UW Undergraduates, June 2007	Chase Stoudt, UW Undergraduate Oceanography major	SW Saskatchewan
Mastigias Jellyfish, Clear Lake, Palau	Croccodile Carcass, Hell Hole, Palau	Orange Filter - Great Salt Lake	Saline Lakes-Chaplin, Saskatchewan	Ducking Fences in Saskatchewan	Great Plains of Western Canada
			Postdocs Valerie Schwab & Dirk Sachse, May 2006
SaltCicles, Great Salt Lake, Utah	Sampling Chesapeake Bay Tributaries	Valerie, Julian & Rienk-Chesapeake Bay	Plumbing, Chesapeake Bay	James River Bridge, Chesapeake Bay, VA	River Water, Chesapeake Bay
			Satellite image of Flamingo Lagoon on the north side of Floreana Island, Galapagos. We cored this lagoon in June 2008.	This manual water filtration system was used throughout our Galapagos trip in June 2008. Though slow it allowed us to get to many sites without batteries or access to electricity. The filter diameter is 142 mm and it is a Whatman GF/F filter with 0.7 um pore diameter.	Graduate student Alyssa Atwood measures chemical and physical properties of a salt pond on Isabela Island, Galapagos, in June 2008.
Team Salt, Great Salt Lake, June 2007	Giant Tortoises, Galapagos	Marine Iguana, Galapagos	Flamingo Lagoon, Floreana	Manual Filtrations System	Alyssa Probes Isabela Salt Pond
A hotel door and overturned inflatable boat were among the many "innovations" we introduced during our June 2008 Galapagos trip. Here we (Julian shown) are setting off to core Posa Verdes on Isabela Island.	Sea lions like to sun themselves on boat decks in the harbor on Isabela Island!	South Carolina Congressman Bob Inglis (center) discusses climate change with Dr. Matthias Wolffe (left) of the Charles Darwin Research Station and Dr. Simon Haberle (right) of the Australian National University during our June 2008 Galapagos trip. One of our activities was to lead a delegation of US Congressmen from the House Science & Technology Committee concerned about climate change.	Microbial mats covered many areas of Flamingo Lagoon on Floreana Island in June 2008. The salinity during our visit was 44 psu, about 35% higher than in the seawater just over the beach!	Julian & graduate student Dan Nelson spool cable for the data sonde while en route from San Diego, California to Clipperton Atoll--a 1,600 mile trip that lasted 7 days.	Some of the ~675 palm trees on tiny Clipperton Atoll can be seen in this beautiful March 2008 sunset.
Makeshift Coring Platform	Sea Lion on the Aloha Deck	Rep. Bob Inglis Discusses Climate Change	Microbial Mat, Flamingo Lagon	Spooling Cable en route to Clipperton	Clipperton Atoll Sunset
Graduate students Alyssa Atwood (left) and Dan Nelson (right), along with Dr. Julian Sachs (center), pass the time on the sportfishing vessel SHOGUN, somewhere in the eastern tropical North Pacific Ocean, en route to Clipperton Atoll in March 2008	No shortage of boobies on Clipperton Atoll....	We teamed up with a team of 20 French, Canadian and America amateur radio operators (DXers) who set up shop on Clipperton Atoll for 10 days in March 2008. They were a fun, interesting and resourceful bunch!	Julian and Dan section a U-core from Clipperton Lagoon in March 2008.	Here a brown boobie sings in "Bougainville" on Clipperton Atoll, March 2008.	Here are the tents of the science team members on Clipperton Atoll, March 2008. Notice the short plastic fence around the camp--to keep out the ever-curious land crabs.
Clipperton '08 Team	Clipperton Boobies!	Clipperton DXpedition Team	Core Sectioning	Singing Boobie	Sleeping Quarters on Clipperton
Approach to Lib Island in the Marshall Islands, 21 July 2009. Photo by Conor Myhrvold.
Lib Island, Republic of the Marshall Islands	(Image caption)