Evaluation of geomagnetic relative palaeointensity as a chronostratigraphic tool in the Southern Ocean: Refined Plio-/Pleistocene chronology of IODP Site U1533 (Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica)

• Published in: Quaternary Science Reviews
• Main Authors: Hopkins, Becky, Xuan, Chuang, Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter, Van Peer, Tim E., Jin, Yuxi, Frederichs, Thomas, Gao, Liang, Bohaty, Steve M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Elsevier 2024
• Subjects: Amundsen Sea; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; West Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Iceberg*; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/536562/; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379123005085

International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 379 to the Amundsen Sea margin of West Antarctica recovered drill cores at two sites spanning the Latest Miocene–Holocene interval with the aim of reconstructing past West Antarctic Ice Sheet dynamics. The recovered Plio-/Pleistocene sediment sequences offer an opportunity to apply and test different dating approaches in an Antarctic deep-sea drift setting, where the records are nearly continuous and unaffected by scouring of icebergs or grounded ice. Here, through palaeomagnetic analysis of continuous u-channel samples and application of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanning, we revise the IODP Exp. 379 Site U1533 age model for the uppermost Pliocene and Pleistocene composite interval (0.0–2.9 Ma). We first refine the magnetostratigraphic age model with high-resolution u-channel analysis and interpreted directional data. Consistent with shipboard results, all major geomagnetic polarity chrons and subchrons are identified in the Pleistocene section. The new high-resolution u-channel dataset also allows us to identify a geomagnetic polarity excursion at ∼884 ka (interpreted as the Kamikatsura excursion) and another excursion at ∼2734 ka with confidence (potentially the Porcupine excursion). Based on the improved polarity stratigraphy, we then develop two new highly resolved age models for Site U1533 using: (i) barium enrichment cycles identified in XRF scanning data, and (ii) geomagnetic relative palaeointensity (RPI). In our first age model, we correlate cyclic variations in sedimentary barium enrichment, inferred to represent changes in export productivity, to glacial‒interglacial cycles of the Lisiecki and Raymo (2005) benthic foraminiferal oxygen isotope (δ18O) stack (LR04). Nearly all Pleistocene Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) are interpreted to be present in the barium enrichment record of Site U1533, assuming simultaneous changes in Antarctic sea-ice extent/local export productivity and global oxygen isotope stratigraphy. We then construct the second, ...