Late pleistocene sedimentation history of the Shirshov Ridge, Bering Sea

The analysis of the lithology, grain-size distribution, clay minerals, and geochemistry of Upper Pleistocene sediments from the submarine Shirshov Ridge (Bering Sea) showed that the main source area was the Yukon–Tanana terrane of Central Alaska. The sedimentary materials were transported by the Yuk...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geochemistry International
Main Authors: Levitan, M. A., Kuzmina, T. G., Luksha, V. L., Roshchina, I. A., Syromyatnikov, K. V., Max, L., Nürnberg, Dirk, Riethdorf, Jan-Rainer, Tiedemann, Ralf
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Springer 2013
Subjects:
Bering Sea
Shirshov Ridge
Yukon
Yukon river
Alaska
Beringia
Online Access:https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/22265/
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/22265/1/Levitan%20et%20al.,%202013.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016702913030051
Description
Summary:The analysis of the lithology, grain-size distribution, clay minerals, and geochemistry of Upper Pleistocene sediments from the submarine Shirshov Ridge (Bering Sea) showed that the main source area was the Yukon–Tanana terrane of Central Alaska. The sedimentary materials were transported by the Yukon River through Beringia up to the shelf break, where they were entrained by a strong northwestward-flowing sea current. The lithological data revealed several pulses of ice-rafted debris deposition, roughly synchronous with Heinrich events, and periods of weaker bottom-current intensity. Based on the geochemical results, we distinguished intervals of an increase in paleoproductivity and extension of the oxygen minimum zone. The results suggest that there were three stages of deposition driven by glacioeustatic sea-level fluctuations and glacial cycles in Alaska.

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