Sediment sources and transport pathways on shelves of the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas: Evidence from the heavy minerals and garnet geochemistry

• Published in: Polar Science
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Heavy minerals; Geochemistry of garnet; Surface sediment; Chukchi Sea; East Siberian Sea; Okhotsk; Pacific; Kolyma; Wrangel Island; Anadyr; Anadyr’; Indigirka; Anadyr'; Chukchi; Chukotka; kolyma river; Polar Science; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=16972; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00016841/

Study of sediment sources and transport pathways in the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas is vital for understanding the interaction of fluvial, ocean, and sea-ice dynamics. In this study, 42 samples were analyzed for heavy minerals and 23 were analyzed for garnet geochemistry. These analyses suggest that the surface sediment is mainly sourced from the surrounding rivers. There are distinctive performances between the heavy minerals and garnet geochemistry of sediments in the Chukchi Sea and the East Siberian Sea. The content of hypersthene increased significantly on the outer shelf of the Chukchi Sea. The garnet was derived from volcanic rocks of the Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanic province and transported from the Gulf of Anadyr by the Pacific inflow. Coastal erosion materials dominated in the inner shelf of the Chukchi Sea. A significant amount of river input occurred in the western, middle, and eastern parts of the East Siberian Sea. The inputs from the Indigirka River and Kolyma River tend to be distributed eastward. The garnet geochemistry shows that there was a mixed sedimentary zone located south of Wrangel Island. The sediments in the outer shelf of the East Siberian Sea show a stable mixed sedimentary environment.