Holocene sedimentation on the distal Amazon Fan/Demerara Abyssal Plain

• Published in: Marine geology 2018-10, Vol.404, p.147-157
• Main Authors: Lund, Steve, Mortazavi, Emily, Chong, Laurie, Platzman, Ellen, Berelson, Will
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0025-3227; 1872-6151
• DOI: 10.1016/j.margeo.2018.06.015

We have studied the rock magnetic characteristics of 31 multicores and 7 gravity cores from deep-sea sediments of the distal Amazon Fan and Demerara Abyssal Plain. This study has permitted us to delineate the space/time pattern of Holocene physical sedimentation along the northeastern margin of South America associated with the Amazon River sediment plume. The rock magnetic variability is correlatable over the entire study region. This degree of correlation has permitted us to develop a composite picture of Holocene rock magnetic (and overall physical clastic) sedimentation. 26 radiocarbon dates have been combined with the rock magnetic correlations to provide a composite Holocene chronostratigraphy for that variability. We have built isopach maps of overall sedimentation for three windows in the Holocene (3000, 4500, and 7000 calendar years BP). The overall sedimentation in the center of our region is ~5 cm/kyr. But, sedimentation rates are faster closer to the coastline and associated with the distal clastic flux from the Amazon Plume. There is a secondary high in sediment accumulation under the North Brazil Current retroflection. Our maps suggest that the retroflection has been active at the millennial scale for at least the last 7000 years. We estimate that the mid-Holocene (~4.5–9000 calendar years BP) pattern of sedimentation was distinctly different from that of the last few thousand years. The clastic sediments were ~25% reduced in concentration (with the biogenic sediments similarly increased by ~25%), they were finer–grained, and significantly less rich in ferric iron phases (hematite/goethite). We think these three covarying clastic parameters are due to an interval of reduced clastic flux from the Amazon River Plume with a reduced proportion of Amazon Basin sediments (as opposed to Andes-derived sediments). We hypothesize this was due to significantly drier Amazon Basin environmental conditions during that time interval. •Our paper presents the first summary of Holocene deep-sea deposition in this region and its relationship to Amazon Fan sediment discharge.•It documents the importance of the North Brazil Coastal Current retroflection during the Holocene as a source of extra sediment flux to the deep coastal ocean.•It documents evidence for a significant reduction in Amazon sediment flux that we associate with a 4–8000 YBP drought.