Late pleistocene and holocene sedimentation in the central and eastern Persian Gulf

• Main Author: Diester, Lieselotte
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 1972
• Subjects: GC; GIK/IfG; GIK01177; GIK01201; Gravity corer; Gravity corer (Kiel type); IIOE - International Indian Ocean Expedition; Indian Ocean; Institute for Geosciences; Christian Albrechts University; Kiel; IOE1056; KAL; Kasten corer; M1; M1_355B 01177-C; M1_379; M1056D; Meteor (1964); Persian Gulf; SL; Indian; Planktonic foraminifera
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.548411; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.548411

The sandfraction of the sediment was analysed in five cores, taken from 65 m water depth in the central and eastern part of the Persian Gulf. The holocene marls are underlayn by aragonite muds, which are probably 10-11,000 years old. 1. The cores could be subdivided into coarse grained and fine grained layers. Sorting is demonstrated by the following criteria: With increasing median values of the sandfraction - the fine grained fraction decreases within each core; - the median of each biogenic component, benthonic as well as planktonic, increases; - the median of the relict sediment, which in core 1179 was carried upward into the marl by bioturbation, increases; - the percentages of pelecypods, gastropods, decapods and serpulid worms in the sandfraction increase, the percentages of foraminifera and ostracods decrease; - the ratios of pelecypods to foraminifera and of decapods to ostracods increase; - the ratios of benthonic molluscs to planktonic molluscs (pteropods) and of benthonic foraminifera to planktonic foraminifera increase (except in core 1056 and 1179); - the ratio of planktonic molluscs (pteropods) to planktonic foraminifera increases; - the globigerinas without orbulinas increase, the orbulinas decrease in core 1056. Different settling velocities of these biogenic particles help in better understanding the results : the settling velocities, hence the equivalent hydrodynamic diameters, of orbulinas are smaller than those of other globigerinas, those of planktonic foraminifera are smaller than those of planktonic molluscs, those of planktonic molluscs are smaller than those of benthonic molluscs, those of pelecypods are smaller than those of gastropods. Bioturbation could not entirely distroy this “grain-size-stratification". Sorting has been stronger in the coarse layers than in the finer ones. As a cause variations in the supply of terrigenous material at constant strength of tidal currents is suggested. When much terrigenous material is supplied (large contents of fine grained fraction) the ...