Holocene chronostratigraphy of northeastern Baffin Bay based on radiocarbon and palaeomagnetic data

• Published in: Boreas
• Main Authors: Caron, Myriam, St‐Onge, Guillaume, Montero‐Serrano, Jean‐Carlos, Rochon, André, Georgiadis, Eleanor, Giraudeau, Jacques, Massé, Guillaume
• Other Authors: ArcticNet, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2018
• Subjects: Baffin Bay; Greenland; Baffin
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bor.12346; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fbor.12346; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/bor.12346

The northeastern Baffin Bay continental margin, which experiences high sediment accumulation rates, is an excellent location to study Holocene sedimentary variations. However, it is often difficult to obtain reliable chronologies of the sediment archives using traditional methods (δ 18 O and radiocarbon) due to specific oceanographic conditions (e.g. corrosive bottom waters). Here we propose a chronostratigraphy of three cores collected on the northwestern Greenland margin ( AMD 14‐204, AMD 14‐210 and AMD 14‐Kane2B) based on a combination of radiocarbon dating and palaeomagnetic records. Geophysical properties of discrete samples were used to verify the reliability of the palaeomagnetic records. Palaeomagnetic analyses indicate a strong and stable natural remanent magnetization carried by low coercivity ferrimagnetic minerals (magnetite) in the pseudo‐single domain grain size range. Correlation of the full palaeomagnetic vector (inclination, declination, and relative palaeointensity) was used to establish a reliable chronostratigraphical framework for two of the cores ( AMD 14‐204 and AMD 14‐210) and to propose an original palaeomagnetic record for the previously 14 C‐dated core AMD 14‐Kane2B that covers most of the Holocene. Overall, this new chronostratigraphy allowed improvement of the timing of the main palaeoenvironmental changes that occurred in this area during the Holocene.