IRD flux and supporting data on two cores in the western North Atlantic ...

• Main Authors: Zhou, Yuxin, McManus, Jerry F, Jacobel, Allison W, Costa, Kassandra M, Wang, Shouyi, Caraveo, Blanca Alvarez
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2020
• Subjects: Heinrich event; IRD flux; thorium normalization; Western North Atlantic; Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University LDEO; Hudson Strait; Ice Sheet; Labrador Sea; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.911512; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.911512

A series of catastrophic iceberg discharges termed Heinrich events punctuated the last ice age in the North Atlantic. During Heinrich events, coarse terrigenous debris released from the drifting icebergs and preserved in deep-sea sediments serves as an indicator of their passage. Quantifying the vertical flux of ice-rafted debris (IRD) in pelagic sediments can resolve questions regarding the timing and variation in ice sheet calving intensity. In this study, 230Thxs-based IRD flux was measured throughout the last glacial period in a deep-sea sediment core from the western North Atlantic (EW9303-37JPC, 43.68°N, 46.28°W, 3981 m), and complemented during Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 1-3 by measurements from DY081-GVY01 (50.16°N, 45.51°W, 3721m) in the Labrador Sea. The cores are downstream from the Hudson Strait, a leading candidate for the conduit of the icebergs from the Laurentide ice sheet (LIS). We compare our results with the directly equivalent existing data in the eastern North Atlantic, and show that ...