The climatic significance of laminated sediments from turbid meltwaters on the NW Barents Sea continental margin (Arctic)

• Main Authors: Lucchi R. G., Morigi C., Sabbatini A., Laberg J. S., Husum K., Gamboa Sojo, V. Musco, E. Chiaricchi, C. Caffau, M. Sagnotti, L. Macrì, P. Mazzini, A. Krueger, De Vittor, C. Kovacevic, V. Deponte, D. Graziani, S. Bensi, M. Langone, L. Princivalle, F. Giorgietti, G. Caburlotto, A. Rebesco
• Other Authors: Lucchi, R. G., Morigi, C., Sabbatini, A., Laberg, J. S., Husum, K., Gamboa, Sojo, V., Musco, E., Chiaricchi, C., Caffau, M., Sagnotti, L., Macrì, P., Mazzini, A., Krueger, De, Vittor, C., Kovacevic, V., Deponte, D., Graziani, S., Bensi, M., Langone, L., Princivalle, F., Giorgietti, G., Caburlotto, A., Rebesco
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Arctic; Barents Sea; Svalbard; Ice Sheet; Storfjorden
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11568/947816

The recent depositional architecture of the north-western Barents Sea continental margin derives from past climate changes with alternating deposition of highly consolidated glacigenic diamicton (continental shelf) and debris flows (continental slope). These are associated to shelf-edge glaciations, and low-density, normally consolidated biogenic-rich sediments deposited during interglacial conditions. In addition, sub-bottom records outline the presence of acoustically laminated deposits locally having thickness exceeding 10 m, which lithofacies characteristics indicating deposition from turbid meltwaters (plumites) during short-living, phases of glacial retreat (meltwater pulses, MWP). One of the youngest stratigraphic intervals recognized along the NW Barents Sea margin was related to the MWP-1a that was responsible for the deposition of about 1.1 x 1011 tonnes of sediments on the upper slope of the Storfjorden-Kveithola TMFs (south of Svalbard) (Lucchi et al., 2015). New compositional analyses of such plumites revealed a distinct signature that allow us to distinguish deposition from glacial melting from that related to the ice-sheet sub-glacial erosion and transport to the edge of margins. Sediment facies and compositional analyses lead to a new climate-related interpretation of the laminated deposits recognized during Marine Isotopic Stages 3 and 2 on the NW margin of the Barents Sea, including Heinrich Event H2.