Bulk sedimentology from Sites M0002 and M0004 of the ACEX (Exp302) expedition to the Arctic Ocean

• Main Authors: Stein, Ruediger, Boucsein, Bettina, Meyer, Hanno
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2006
• Subjects: 302-M0002A; 302-M0004A; 302-M0004B; ACEX-M2A; ACEX-M4A; ACEX-M4B; Arctic Coring Expedition; ACEX; Arctic Ocean; Exp302; Integrated Ocean Drilling Program / International Ocean Discovery Program; IODP; Vidar Viking; Arctic; Lomonosov Ridge
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.476007; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.476007

Except for a few discontinuous fragments of the Late Cretaceous/Early Cenozoic climate history and depositional environment, the paleoenvironmental evolution of the pre-Neogene central Arctic Ocean was virtually unknown prior to the IODP Expedition 302 (Arctic Ocean Coring Expedition – ACEX) drilling campaign on Lomonosov Ridge in 2004. Here we present detailed organic carbon (OC) records from the entire ca. 200 m thick Paleogene OC-rich section of the ACEX drill sites. These records indicate euxinic „Black Sea-type“ conditions favorable for the preservation of labile aquatic (marine algae-type) OC occur throughout the upper part of the early Eocene and the middle Eocene, explained by salinity stratification due to freshwater discharge. The superimposed short-term („Milankovitch-type“) variability in amount and composition of OC is related to changes in primary production and terrigenous input. Prominent early Eocene events of algae-type OC preservation coincide with global d13C events such as the PETM and Elmo events. The Elmo d13C Event has been identified in the Arctic Ocean for the first time.