Variations in the provenance of sediment from ice sheets surrounding Baffin Bay during MIS 2 and 3 and export to the Labrador Shelf Sea: site HU2008029-0008 Davis Strait

• Published in: Journal of Quaternary Science
• Main Authors: Andrews, John T., Gibb, Olivia T., Jennings, Anne E., Simon, Quentin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2013
• Subjects: Baffin Bay; Greenland; Labrador Shelf; Baffin; Davis Strait; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/36784/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/36784/1/Andrews.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2643

Based on quantitative X-ray diffraction mineralogical analysis of cores HU2008029-0006/0008 (857-m water depth) located south of the Davis Strait sill, we seek answers to two questions: (i) the temporal correlation of NW Labrador Shelf Sea Heinrich (H-) and Baffin Bay detrital carbonate (BBDC) events, and (ii) the provenance of the sediments? A sediment-unmixing model (SedUnMix) is used to determine provenance variations. Although 12 radiocarbon dates were obtained there were many age reversals and we favour a depth/age model for HU2008029-0008PC based on correlations to well-dated neighbouring cores north and south of Davis Strait. We find no correlation between H- and BBDC events except for H-0, which appears to be a broadly synchronous event along the NE Canadian margin and is correlative with an episode of major moraine building along this flank of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Unmixing of the sediment composition based on six potential glacial source regions indicates that the bulk of the sediment in 0008PC is derived from glacial erosion of West Greenland, but is punctuated by intervals when dolomite-rich sediments, derived from outcrops north of Baffin Bay, dominate the composition. Estimated dates on these BBDC events are -13, 25 and 30–38 cal ka BP.