Increased input of circumpolar deep water-borne detritus to the glacial SE Atlantic Ocean

Type Article
Date 2003-03
Language English
Author(s) Bayon Germain, German Cr, Nesbitt Rw, Bertrand P, Schneider Rr
Affiliation(s) Southampton Oceanog Ctr, Southampton SO14 3ZH, Hants, England.
Univ Bordeaux 1, Dept Geol & Oceanog, CNRS, UMR 5805, F-33405 Talence, France.
Univ Bremen, Fachbereich Geowissensch, D-28359 Bremen, Germany.
Source Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems (1525-2027) (Amer Geophysical Union), 2003-03 , Vol. 4 , P. -
DOI 10.1029/2002GC000371
WOS© Times Cited 21
Keyword(s) neodymium isotopes, detrital fractions, South Atlantic, deep water circulation, IMAGES, marine geology and geophysics : marine sediments processes and transport, oceanography : general : paleoceanography
Abstract [1] Analysis of radiogenic isotopes in marine sediments can provide useful information on the provenance and transport of detrital material, directly relevant to paleoceanographic investigations. Here we show that the detrital Nd isotopic composition of recent SE Atlantic marine sediments matches the complex modern-day hydrography. In these same cores, glacial-interglacial isotopic variations are consistent with previous investigations (using different paleoceanographic proxies), which have shown that the relative influence of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) into the South Atlantic was reduced during glacial periods. In a novel departure, however, we also calculate the mass accumulation rates of terrigenous material delivered by each of Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) and NADW to demonstrate that the accumulation of detritus delivered by CDW was enhanced significantly in the glacial South Atlantic. This enhanced transport flux could be explained by an increased flow of CDW into the glacial South Atlantic and/or an increased concentration of suspended terrigenous material transported by glacial CDW.
Full Text
File Pages Size Access
Publisher's official version 13 1 MB Open access
Top of the page