Core-based reconstruction of paleoenvironmental conditions in the southern Drake Passage (West Antarctica) over the last 150 ka

A deep-sea sediment core (GC98-06) from the southernmost Drake Passage, West Antarctica, shows late Quaternary depositional environments distinctly different from sedimentary drifts commonly found along the southwestern Pacific margin of the Drake Passage. The chronology of the core has been inferre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geo-marine letters 2009-10, Vol.29 (5), p.309-320
Main Authors: Yoon, Ho Il, Yoo, Kyu-Cheul, Bak, Young-Suk, Lee, Yong Il, Lee, Jae Il
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Climate change
Continental rise
Deep sea
Detritus
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Environmental changes
Environmental conditions
Geochemistry
Geology
Glaciation
Meltwater
Oceans
Original
Paleoclimate science
Plumes
Quaternary
Sea ice
Sedimentary environments
Sedimentary geology
Sediments
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Summary:A deep-sea sediment core (GC98-06) from the southernmost Drake Passage, West Antarctica, shows late Quaternary depositional environments distinctly different from sedimentary drifts commonly found along the southwestern Pacific margin of the Drake Passage. The chronology of the core has been inferred using geochemical tracers of paleoproductivity and diatom biostratigraphy, and represents the paleoceanographic conditions in a continental rise setting during the last 150,000 years. Three dominant sediment types associated with distinct sedimentary processes have been identified using textural/compositional analyses: (1) hemipelagic mud (interglacial sediments) deposited from pelagic settling of bioclasts, meltwater plumes, and ice-rafted detritus; (2) terrigenous mud (glacial sediments) delivered by turbid meltwater plumes; and (3) massive muds marking the boundaries from interglacial to glacial periods. The succession of the sedimentary facies in core GC98-06 is interpreted to reflect temporal changes in environmental conditions prevailing on the continental rise of the southern Drake Passage in the course of successive climatic stages over the last 150 ka: from the bottom upward, these are glacial, interglacial, glaciation, glacial, and interglacial episodes. Variability in sediment flux and diatom abundance seem to have been related to changes in glacial advance, sea-ice extent, and specific sedimentary environments, collectively influenced by mid- to late Quaternary climatic changes.
ISSN:0276-0460
1432-1157
DOI:10.1007/s00367-009-0144-8