Flux of ice-rafted detritus in the Fram Strait
A three-year particle flux record from the eastern Fram Strait, between Greenland and Svalbard, revealed a rather untypical seasonal flux pattern compared to other particle flux studies from the Nordic Seas. In the eastern Fram Strait this pattern is characterised by a sudden four- to six-fold incre...
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| Format: | Dataset |
| Language: | English |
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PANGAEA
2000
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| Online Access: | https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.787477 https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.787477 |
| Summary: | A three-year particle flux record from the eastern Fram Strait, between Greenland and Svalbard, revealed a rather untypical seasonal flux pattern compared to other particle flux studies from the Nordic Seas. In the eastern Fram Strait this pattern is characterised by a sudden four- to six-fold increase of the particle flux in January, when no daylight is available to support any biological productivity. Comparison with sea-ice distribution maps led to the conclusion that the sudden increase in the flux is due to ice-rafted detritus released from sea ice, which originated from the Svalbard archipelago and from the northern Barents Sea. Detailed grain size analyses of the silt fraction indicated the >10 µm fraction of the lithogenic matter to be clearly enriched due to IRD input. Even more important is the observation that lithogenic material >40 µm occurs exclusively during the ice-rafting event and, therefore, appears to be a suitable indicator for IRD transported on sea ice. Thus, in addition to coarse IRD (e.g. >500 µm), which is mainly derived from icebergs, the analysis of fine IRD >40 µm in deep-sea sediments can be used to reconstruct paleo-sea-ice extensions. |
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