Sedimentology of cores from the continental rise west of the Antarctic Peninsula ...

• Main Author: Pudsey, Carol J
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2000
• Subjects: Piston corer; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.671626; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.671626

The continental rise west of the Antarctic Peninsula includes a number of large sediment mounds interpreted as contourite drifts. Cores from six sediment drifts spanning some 650 km of the margin and 48 of latitude have been dated using chemical and isotopic tracers of palaeoproductivity and diatom biostratigraphy. Interglacial sedimentation rates range from 1.1 to 4.3 cm/ka. Glacial sedimentation rates range from 1.8 to 13.5 cm/ka, and decrease from proximal to distal sites on each drift. Late Quaternary sedimentation was cyclic, with brown, biogenic, burrowed mud containing ice-rafted debris (IRD) in interglacials and grey, barren, laminated mud in glacials. Foraminiferal intervals occur in interglacial stages 5 and 7 but not in the Holocene. Processes of terrigenous sediment supply during glacial stages differed; meltwater plumes were more important in stages 2–4, turbidity currents and ice-rafting in stage 6. The terrigenous component shows compositional changes along the margin, more marked in glacials. ... : Supplement to: Pudsey, Carol J (2000): Sedimentation on the continental rise west of the Antarctic Peninsula over the last three glacial cycles. Marine Geology, 167(3-4), 313-338 ...