Paleomagnetic Constraints on Sedimentation Rates in the Eastern Arctic Ocean

• Published in: Quaternary Research
• Main Authors: Schneider, David A., Backman, Jan, Curry, William B., Possnert, Göran
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1996
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Earth-Surface Processes; Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Canada; Morris Jesup Rise; canada basin
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/qres.1996.0044; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0033589496900447?httpAccept=text/xml; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0033589496900447?httpAccept=text/plain; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S003358940003917X

Deep-sea sediments recovered from six sites visited during the International Arctic Ocean Expedition of 1991 were examined to determine sedimentation rates in the eastern Arctic Ocean basin. The dearth of age-diagnostic biogenic material in these sediments precludes the application of biostratigraphic methods, but ages can be deduced using paleomagnetism, in conjunction with measurements of radiocarbon and carbonate concentration. Although no one of these techniques gives an unambiguous determination of age, the interpretation most consistent with these diverse data implies that sedimentation rates in the eastern Arctic are, in general, a few centimeters per thousand years. Such estimates of sedimentation rate are an order of magnitude greater than those previously determined from many sediment cores taken from the Canada Basin. However, one site examined on the Morris Jesup Rise shows a relatively low rate of sediment accumulation (less than 0.6 cm/10 3 yr) suggesting that, although higher than in the Canada Basin, sedimentation rates in the eastern Arctic can be highly variable.