Millennial-scale depositional cycles related to British Ice Sheet variability and North Atlantic paleocirculation since 45 kyr BP, Barra Fan, UK margin

Lithology, lithic petrology, planktonic foraminiferal abundances, and elastic grain sizes have been determined in a 30 m-long core recovered from the Barra Fan off northwest Scotland. The record extends back to around 45 kyr B.P., with sedimentation rates ranging between 50 and 200 cm/kyr. The abund...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Paleoceanography
Main Authors: Knutz, Pc, Austin, Wen, Jones, Ejw
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Amer Geophysical Union 2001
Subjects:
geo
envir
Barra
Rockall Trough
Ice Sheet
North Atlantic
Planktonic foraminifera
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/1999PA000483
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00220/33174/31680.pdf
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00220/33174/
Description
Summary:Lithology, lithic petrology, planktonic foraminiferal abundances, and elastic grain sizes have been determined in a 30 m-long core recovered from the Barra Fan off northwest Scotland. The record extends back to around 45 kyr B.P., with sedimentation rates ranging between 50 and 200 cm/kyr. The abundance of ice-rafted debris indicates 16 glacimarine events, including temporal equivalents to Heinrich events 1-4. Enhanced concentrations of basaltic material derived from the British Tertiary Province suggest that the glacimarine sediments record variations in a glacial source on the Hebrides shelf margin. Glacimarine zones are separated by silty intervals with high planktonic foraminifera concentrations that reflect an interstadial circulation regime in the Rockall Trough. The results suggest that the last British Ice Sheet fluctuated with a periodicity of 2000-3000 years, in common with the Dansgaard-Oeschger climate cycle.

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