Sandra Passchier is an Associate Professor of Geoscience in the Department of Earth and Environmental Studies. Her primary research interests are in the stability of polar ice sheets and their role in global climate change as it can be extracted from sediment cores on high latitude continental margins. She was an invited scientist in 5 international drilling programs in Antarctica and published more than 25 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as GSA Bulletin, Paleoceanography, Nature, Sedimentology, Journal of Geophysical Research, Global and Planetary Change, and Palaeogeography/Palaeoclimatology/Palaeoecology. Dr. Passchier has received over $500k in external funding from NSF and the Joint Oceanographic Institutions. She is a member of the international steering committee for Antarctic Climate Evolution, one of the five flagship research programs of the Scientific Committee of Antarctic Research. She holds a Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from The Ohio State University and an M.S. in Physical Geography from the University of Amsterdam.

At Montclair State University Dr. Passchier has taught: Planet Earth (GEOS 107), Historical Geology (GEOS 114), Invertebrate Paleobiology (GEOS 431), Stratigraphy (GEOS 434), Seminar on Aquatic Sedimentary Environments (GEOS 494/592) and Sedimentary Petrology (GEOS 538)

Over the past 20 years my research has primarily focused on sediments recording the role of the Earth's cryosphere in long-term global climate change. My students, colleagues and I have worked on Cenozoic glacial and coastal sediment records in Antarctica, Greenland, and the North Sea basin and the lithified glacial rocks of the Neoproterozoic Squantum "Tillite" in the Boston basin. We use sedimentary facies analyses from visual outcrop, core descriptions, and acoustic data in combination with physical and chemical laboratory methods to reconstruct sedimentary paleoenvironments, sediment dispersal paths, paleoweathering signals, and ice-sheet extent. My niche is the study of sediments sourced from former or present ice centers to provide constraints for the interpretation of far-field records of cryospheric change, such as sequence stratigraphic and isotope proxies. I have completed 5 expeditions to Antarctica and 1 to Greenland. I have also completed a dozen shipboard cruises in the North Sea, working on sediment dynamics and habitat characteristics of a shallow siliciclastic shelf.

Current research projects are described below under "Research Projects".

SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS (*designates student authors)

Tauxe, L., Stickley, C.E., Sugisaki, S., Bijl, P.K., Bohaty S., Brinkhuis, H., Escutia, C,, Flores, J.A., Iwai, M., Jiménez-Espejo F.,McKay, R., Passchier, S., Pross, J., Riesselman, C., Röhl, U.,Sangiorgi, F., Welsh, K., Klaus, A., Fehr, A., Bendle, J.A.P., Dunbar, R., Gonzàlez, J., Hayden, T., Olney, M.P., Pekar, S.F., Shrivastava, P.K., van de Flierdt, T., Williams, T., Yamane, M., submitted. Integrated biomagnetostratigraphy of the Wilkes Land Margin for reconstruction of 53 Ma of Antarctic Margin paleoceanography: New results from IODP Expedition 318. Submitted to Paleoceanography.

*Hauptvogel, D.W. and Passchier, S., 2012. Early-middle Miocene (17-14 Ma) Antarctic ice dynamics reconstructed from the heavy mineral provenance in AND-2A, Ross Sea, Antarctica. Global and Planetary Change, 82-83, 38–50.

Passchier, S., Browne, G., Field, B., Fielding, C.R., Krissek, L.A., Panter, K., Pekar, S.F. and ANDRILL-SMS Science Team, 2011. Early and middle Miocene Antarctic glacial history from the sedimentary facies distribution in the AND-2A drill hole, Ross Sea, Antarctica. GSA Bulletin, v. 123; no. 11-12; p. 2352-2365; DOI: 10.1130/B30334.1 FREE REPRINT-check here: http://bulletin.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/full/123/11-12/2352?ijkey=WjhuaWsX1pOcc&keytype=ref&siteid=gsabull

Passchier, S., 2011. Linkages between East Antarctic Ice Sheet extent and Southern Ocean temperatures based on a Pliocene high-resolution record of ice-rafted debris off Prydz Bay, East Antarctica. Paleoceanography, 26, PA4204, doi:10.1029/2010PA002061.

Passchier, S., 2011. Ancient Antarctic Fjords (News and Views). Nature, 474(7349), 46–47, doi:10.1038/474046a

Passchier, S., and *Erukanure, E., 2010. Paleoenvironments and weathering regime of the Neoproterozoic Squantum “Tillite”, Boston Basin: no evidence of a snowball Earth. Sedimentology, 57, 1526–1544.

Passchier, S., Laban, C., Mesdag, C., Rijsdijk, K.F., 2010. Subglacial bed conditions during late Pleistocene glaciations and their impact on ice dynamics in the southern North Sea. Boreas, 39, 633–647,10.1111/j.1502-3885.2009.00138.x. ISSN 0300-9483.

Stickley, C.E., St John, K.E., Koç, N., Jordan, R.W., Passchier, S., Pearce, R.B., Kearns, L.E., 2009. Evidence for middle Eocene Arctic sea ice from diatoms and ice-rafted debris. Nature, 460, 376-379.

Siegert, M.J., Barrett, P., DeConto, R., Dunbar, R., Ó Cofaigh, C., Passchier, S., Naish, T., 2008. Recent advances in understanding Antarctic climate evolution. Antarctic Science, 20 (4), 313-325. doi:10.1017/S0954102008000941

Passchier, S., Krissek, L.A., 2008. Oligocene?Miocene Antarctic continental weathering record and paleoclimatic implications, Cape Roberts drilling Project, Ross Sea, Antarctica, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 260, 30-40.

Passchier, S., Whitehead, J.M., 2006. Anomalous geochemical provenance and weathering history of Plio-Pleistocene glaciomarine fjord strata, Bardin Bluffs Formation, East Antarctica. Sedimentology, 53, 929-942.

Passchier, S., Kleinhans, M.G., 2005. Observations of sand waves, megaripples and hummocks in the Dutch coastal area and their relation to currents and combined flow conditions. Journal of Geophysical Research, 110, F04S15.

Expedition Objective Research: Early Pliocene Record Of Antarctic Ice Rafting And Paleoenvironmental Conditions, Wilkes Land Margin, Antarctica

The Pliocene was the last epoch wherein the atmospheric pCO2 was similar to today's partial pressure and global surface temperatures were higher than the modern with a larger than average degree of warming occurring at high latitudes. This project investigates early Pliocene East Antarctic ice dynamics and paleoenvironmental conditions from variations in the production of ice-rafted debris and major element geochemistry of sediment cores collected during IODP Expedition 318 to the Wilkes Land margin of Antarctica. This portion of Antarctica carries the Wilkes and Aurora subglacial basins, where the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) is grounded below sea level, and is potentially unstable. Funding: Consortium for Ocean Leadership and National Science Foundation

Determining Middle Miocene through Pliocene changes in basal ice conditions in East Antarctica through sedimentological analyses of core samples

The objective of this project is to identify a previously proposed middle Miocene transition from a more dynamic wet-based East Antarctic ice sheet to the present semi-permanent ice sheet that is partially frozen to its bed. The timing and significance of this transition is controversial due to a lack of quantitative studies on well-dated ice-proximal sedimentary sequences. This project partially fills that gap using the composition and physical properties of sediments to establish shifts in ice-sheet drainage pathways, paleoenvironments and basal ice conditions. Funding: National Science Foundation

Recording Middle Miocene through Pliocene Antarctic cryospheric change based on shifts in sedimentary facies, particle size, heavy minerals and SEM analyses of quartz grain surface textures.

It is expected that, if the middle Miocene was a time of major cryospheric change in East Antarctica, it would be accompanied by major shifts in ice-sheet drainage patterns, reflected in the composition of the sediments in the AND-2A core. Particle size records document the waxing and waning of ice-sheets. Accessory minerals in the heavy mineral fraction of sediments are especially diagnostic of specific source terrains. Together these data sets produce important information on the configuration of ice flow patterns, tectonic processes in the Transantarctic Mountains, and input of volcanic detritus. Funding: National Science Foundation (subaward through ANDRILL Office at UNL)