Arctic Ocean Sediments: Processes, Proxies, and Paleoenvironment

607 Pages·2008·29.17 MB·English

by  Ruediger Stein (Eds.)

V OLUME TWO
D M
EVELOPMENTS IN ARINE
G
EOLOGY
ARCTIC OCEAN
SEDIMENTS: PROCESSES,
PROXIES, AND
PALEOENVIRONMENT
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V OLUME TWO
D M G
EVELOPMENTS IN ARINE EOLOGY
ARCTIC OCEAN
SEDIMENTS: PROCESSES,
PROXIES, AND
PALEOENVIRONMENT
By
RUEDIGER STEIN
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and
Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany
Amsterdam (cid:2)Boston (cid:2) Heidelberg (cid:2)London (cid:2) NewYork (cid:2)Oxford
Paris (cid:2) San Diego(cid:2) San Francisco (cid:2) Singapore(cid:2) Sydney (cid:2) Tokyo
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C
ONTENTS
Preface ix
Listof Abbreviations xiii
Part 1: Introduction and Background
1. Introduction to the Arctic: Significance and History 3
1.1. TheArcticOceanand ItsSignificance for theEarth’s Climate System 3
1.2. Historyof Arctic OceanResearch 9
1.3. PlateTectonic Evolution andPalaeogeography 22
1.4. Glaciations inEarth’s History 30
2. Modern Physiography, Hydrology, Climate, and Sediment Input 35
2.1. Bathymetry andPhysiography 35
2.2. Oceanic Circulation PatternandWater-Mass Characteristics 40
2.3. Sea-Ice Cover:Extent, Thickness, andVariability 48
2.4. Primary Production andVerticalCarbonFluxes intheArctic Ocean 55
2.5. RiverDischarge 63
2.6. Permafrost 76
2.7. CoastalErosion 78
2.8. Aeolian Input 82
2.9. Modern Sediment Input:ASummary 84
Part 2: Processes and Proxies
3. Glacio-Marine Sedimentary Processes 87
3.1. Sea-Ice Processes: Sediment Entrainment andTransport 88
3.2. IceSheet- andIceberg-Related Processes 95
3.3. Sediment Mass-Wasting Processes 101
3.4. TurbiditeSedimentation intheCentral ArcticOcean 126
4. Proxies Used for Palaeoenvironmental Reconstructions in the
Arctic Ocean 133
4.1. Lithofacies Concept 133
4.2. Grain-Size Distribution 139
4.3. Proxiesfor Sources andTransport Processesof TerrigenousSediments 146
4.4. Trace ElementsUsed forPalaeoenvironmental Reconstruction 167
vii
viii Contents
4.5. Micropalaeontological Proxies andTheir(Palaeo-) Environmental
andStratigraphical Significance 170
4.6. Stable Isotopes ofForaminifers 201
4.7. Organic-GeochemicalProxies for Organic-Carbon Source and
Palaeoenvironment 205
Part 3: The Marine-Geological Record
5. Modern Environment and Its Record in Surface Sediments 247
5.1. Terrigenous(Non-Biogenic) Components inArctic OceanSurface
Sediments: Implications for ProvenanceandModern Transport Processes 247
5.2. Organic-Carbon Content: TerrigenousSupply versusPrimary Production 273
6. Quaternary Variability of Palaeoenvironment and Its Sedimentary
Record 287
6.1. TheStratigraphic Framework of ArcticOceanSediment Cores:
Background, Problems,andPerspectives 287
6.2. Variability ofQuaternary IceSheets andPalaeoceanographic
Characteristics: Terrestrial, Model, andEurasianContinental
Margin Records 317
6.3. Circum-Arctic Glacial History, Sea-Ice Cover,and
Surface-Water Characteristics: Quaternary Records fromthe
CentralArctic Ocean 369
6.4. Accumulation of Particulate OrganicCarbonat theArctic Continental
Margin andDeep-Sea Areas DuringLate Quaternary Times 409
7. Mesozoic to Cenozoic Palaeoenvironmental Records of High
Northern Latitudes 439
7.1. MesozoicHigh-Latitude Palaeoclimate andArcticOcean
Palaeoenvironment 439
7.2. CenozoicHigh-Latitude Palaeoclimate andArctic Ocean
Palaeoenvironment 457
8. Open Questions and Future Geoscientific Arctic Ocean Research 497
8.1. Quaternary andNeogeneClimate Variability on Sub-Millennial to
Milankovich TimeScales 498
8.2. TheMesozoic–Cenozoic History oftheArctic Ocean 500
References 507
Index 587
P
REFACE
Although it is generally accepted that the Arctic Ocean is a very sensitive and important
region for changes in the global climate, this region is one of the last major physiographic
provinces of the earth whose short- and long-term geological history is not very well
known. Since the first recovery and description of deep-sea sediments during the famous
1893–1896 Fram-Expedition of Fridtjof Nansen (Nansen, 1897; Bo¨ggild, 1906), the
progressingettingabetterunderstandingoftheArcticOceansystemanditsrelationshipto
global change has been slow in comparison to studies in other ocean regions. This lack of
knowledge is mainly caused by the major technological/logistic problems in reaching this
permanently ice-covered region with normal research vessels and in retrieving long and
undisturbed sediment cores. Prior to 1990, the available samples and geological data
from the central Arctic Basins are derived mainly from drifting ice islands such as T-3
(e.g.,Clarketal.,1980)andCESAR(Jacksonetal.,1985),andafewshipsexpeditionssuch
asYmer-80(Bostro¨m&Thiede,1984),PolarsternARK-IV/3(Thiede,1988),andPolarStar-
1988 (Phillips et al., 1992). Comprehensive summaries about the knowledge on Arctic
Ocean geology based on data available prior to 1990 were published in Herman (1989),
Bleil and Thiede (1990), and Grantz et al. (1990).
In the following years, several international and multidisciplinary expeditions were
carriedout,forexample,thePolarstern/OdenExpeditionin1991(Fu¨tterer,1992),thePolar
Sea Expedition in 1993 (Grantz et al., 1998), the Louis St. Laurent/Polar Sea Expedition in
1994 (Wheeler, 1997), the Polarstern expeditions in 1998, 2001, 2004, and 2007 (Jokat,
1999; Thiede, 2002; Stein, 2005; Schauer, 2008), and the Akademik Federov Expedition in
2000 (Kabanukov et al., 2004), the Oden expeditions in 2001 and 2007 (Gro¨nlund, 2001;
Jakobsson,Polyak,&Darby,2007b),andtheHealy/OdenExpeditionin2005(Darbyetal.,
2005). Furthermore, major multidisciplinary circum-Arctic research programmes and
initiatives were developed, for example, SEARCH (The Study of Environmental Change;
Morison et al., 2001), SBI (Arctic Shelf-Basin Interactions; Grebmeier & Harvey, 2005),
APARD(ArcticPaleo-RiverDischarge;Stein,1998),andACD(ArcticCoastalDynamics;
Rachold, Are, Atkinson, Cherkashov, & Solomon, 2004b).
Prior to 2004, the geological sampling in the Arctic Ocean was restricted to obtaining
near-surface sediments, that is, only the upper 15m could be sampled by means of gravity
and piston coring. Thus, all studies were restricted to the Late Pliocene-Quaternary time
interval, with one exception. In four short sediment cores from Alpha Ridge where older
strataarecropping-out,upperCretaceousandlowerTertiarysedimentscouldbesampledby
gravity coring from an ice flow (see Chapter 7). That means, the old pre-Pliocene
palaeoenvironmental history of the central Arctic Ocean was almost unknown. This
situationchangedwiththefirstscientific drillingonLomonosovRidge,whichwascarried
out in August/September 2004 within the framework of the Integrated Ocean Drilling
Program(IODP).DuringthisIODP–ACEX(ArcticCoringExpedition)expedition,which
isabreak-throughfor palaeoenvironmentalresearch,amorethan 400mthicksedimentary
ix