Reconstruction of past changes of the intermediate ad deep waters hydrology in the Mediterranean Sea 145 ka from the Nd isotopic composition analyse on foraminifera

• Main Author: Duhamel, Maxence
• Other Authors: Géosciences Paris Saclay (GEOPS), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paris-Saclay, Christophe Colin, Giuseppe Siani
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: Paleo-hydrology; Mediterranean sea; Late quaternary; Nd isotopic composition; Foraminifera; Paléohydrologie; Méditerranée; Quaternaire terminal; Composition isotopique du Néodyme; Foraminifères; [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography; [SDU.STU.CL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Climatology; [SDU.STU.GC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geochemistry; [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; North Atlantic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://theses.hal.science/tel-03041553; https://theses.hal.science/tel-03041553/document; https://theses.hal.science/tel-03041553/file/79121_DUHAMEL_2020_archivage.pdf

This thesis aims to advance our knowledge of the hydrology of the intermediate and deep water masses of the Mediterranean during the last climatic cycle (last 145 ka), and to constrain the ocean circulation models that allowed the deposition of organic matter-rich sediments (ENT and sapropels). The Nd isotopic composition (εNd) of foraminifera samples in cores located at intermediate and deep bathymetries of the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Adriatic Sea, the Ionian Sea and the Levantine Basin were analyzed. This work allowed to highlight that the intermediate and deep waters of the Eastern Mediterranean are systematically more radiogenic during the glacial stadiums than during the interglacials. We have shown that these changes cannot be entirely attributed to variations in dust and river inputs from northern Africa but to significant changes in the amount of Atlantic (AW) water entering the Mediterranean. Periods of low sea ice levels are associated with a reduction in Atlantic water flows through the straits of Gibraltar and Siculo-Tunisia by inducing more radiogenic deep-water masses in the eastern Mediterranean. Superimposed on these glacial-interglacial fluctuations, African humid periods and sapropel deposits are systematically characterized by more radiogenic εNd values. This has been attributed to the cessation of deep convection of less radiogenic surface water associated with an increase in the contact time of deep-water bodies with radiogenic sediments from the continental margins of the Levantine basin. Our results highlight during terminations I and II an increase in the contribution of less salty water of North Atlantic origin (MAW) of around 55% which may have pre-conditioned the eastern Mediterranean several thousand years before the deposit S1 and S5 sapropels. A comparison of the εNd recordings obtained in the Eastern and Western basins over the last climate cycle shows a stronger gradient of εNd between the two basins at intermediate and deep depths during the glacial stadiums. This is consistent with ...