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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Sam VanLaningham, a doctoral student in Oregon State University's College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, has received a fellowship to conduct research on sediment drift deposits in the north Pacific Ocean.

His Schlanger Ocean Drilling Fellowship, which includes a $28,000 annual stipend, is supported by the United States Science Support Program of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program.

VanLaningham will document the source of a large sediment drift deposit in the north Pacific called the Meiji Drift, using isotopic techniques developed with oceanography faculty members Robert Duncan and Nick Pisias. Found on the bottom of the ocean, these sediments were deposited by deep-water currents, but their origin is unknown.

"Determining how the drift was formed will improve our understanding of processes important to Northern Hemisphere climate and provide insights for future work that will try to unravel the mechanisms that drive climate change and Earth's potential for change in the future," VanLaningham said.

The huge sediment deposit is hundreds of kilometers wide, thousands of kilometers long, and about two kilometers thick, he said.