High-resolution sub-bottom seismic and sediment core records from the Chukchi Abyssal Plain reveal Quaternary glaciation impacts on the western Arctic Ocean

• Main Authors: Joe, Young Jin, Yoon, Seokhoon, Nam, Seung-Ill, Polyak, Leonid, Niessen, Frank
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2017
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Chukchi; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/49561/; http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFMPP51B1061J; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.d5a8d743-34d2-42ba-b203-38984f56a2b7

For regional context of the Quaternary history of Arctic marine glaciations, such as glacial events in northern North America and on the Siberian and Chukchi margins, we used CHIRP sub-bottom profiles (SBP) along with sediment cores, including a 14-m long piston core ARA06-04JPC taken from the Chukchi abyssal plain during the RV Araon expedition in 2015. Based on core correlation with earlier developed Arctic Ocean stratigraphies using distribution of various sedimentary proxies, core 04JPC is estimated to extend to at least Marine Isotope Stage 13 (>0.5 Ma). The stratigraphy developed for SBP lines from the Chukchi abyssal plain to surrounding slopes can be divided into four major seismostratigraphic units (SSU 1-4). SBP records from the abyssal plain show well preserved stratification, whereas on the surrounding slopes this pattern is disrupted by lens-shaped, acoustically transparent sedimentary bodies interpreted as glaciogenic debris flow deposits. Based on the integration of sediment physical property and SBP data, we conclude that these debris flows were generated during several ice-sheet grounding events on the Chukchi and East Siberian margins, including adjacent ridges and plateaus, during the middle to late Quaternary.