Clay mineralogy, strontium and neodymium isotope ratios in the sediments of two High Arctic catchments (Svalbard) ...

• Main Authors: Hindshaw, RS, Tosca, NJ, Piotrowski, AM, Tipper, ET
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus GmbH 2018
• Subjects: 37 Earth Sciences; 3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience; 3703 Geochemistry; 3705 Geology; 14 Life Below Water; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Central Basin; Svalbard
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.25750; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/278404

Abstract. The identification of sediment sources to the ocean is a prerequisite to using marine sediment cores to extract information on past climate and ocean circulation. Sr and Nd isotopes are classical tools with which to trace source provenance. Despite considerable interest in the Arctic Ocean, the circum-Arctic source regions are poorly characterised in terms of their Sr and Nd isotopic compositions. In this study we present Sr and Nd isotope data from the Paleogene Central Basin sediments of Svalbard, including the first published data of stream suspended sediments from Svalbard. The stream suspended sediments exhibit considerable isotopic variation (εNd = −20.6 to −13.4; 87Sr ∕ 86Sr = 0.73421 to 0.74704) which can be related to the depositional history of the sedimentary formations from which they are derived. In combination with analysis of the clay mineralogy of catchment rocks and sediments, we suggest that the Central Basin sedimentary rocks were derived from two sources. One source is ...