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: Institut des Sciences de la MER de Rimouski (ISMER), Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR), Environnements et Paléoenvironnements OCéaniques (EPOC), Observatoire aquitain des sciences de l'univers (OASU), Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Petroleum and Environmental Geochemistry Group, Plymouth University
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Baffin Bay; Baffin; Greenland
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02411243; https://hal.science/hal-02411243/document; https://hal.science/hal-02411243/file/Caron_et_al-2018-Boreas-2-1.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1111/bor.12346

International audience 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 (d 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 (AMD14-204, AMD14-210 and AMD14-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 (AMD14-204 and AMD14-210) and to propose an original palaeomagnetic record for the previously 14 C-dated core AMD14-Kane2B that covers most of the Holocene. Overall, this new chronostratigraphy allowed improvement of the timing of the main palaeoenvi-ronmental changes that occurred in this area during the Holocene.