Last glacial maximum sediment record of the southern Weddell Sea shelf

Abstract: The history of grounded ice-sheet extent on the southern Weddell Sea shelf during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the timing of post-LGM ice-sheet retreat are poorly constrained. Several glaciological models reconstructed widespread grounding and major thickening of the Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Weddell Sea sector at the LGM. In contrast, recently published onshore data and modelling results concluded only very limited LGM-thickening of glaciers and ice streams feeding into the modern Filchner and Ronne ice shelves. These studies concluded that during the LGM ice shelves rather than grounded ice covered the Filchner and Ronne troughs, two deep palaeo-ice stream troughs eroded into the southern Weddell Sea shelf. Here we review previously published and unpublished marine geophysical and geological data from the southern Weddell Sea shelf. The stratigraphy and geometry of reflectors in acoustic sub-bottom profiles are similar to those from other West Antarctic palaeo-ice stream troughs, where grounded ice had advanced to the shelf break at the LGM. Numerous cores from the southern Weddell Sea shelf recovered sequences with properties typical for subglacially deposited tills or subglacially compacted sediments. These data sets give evidence that grounded ice had advanced across the shelf during the past, thereby grounding in even the deepest parts of the Filchner and Ronne troughs. Radiocarbon dates from glaciomarine sediments overlying the subglacial deposits are limited, but indicate that the ice grounding occurred at the LGM and that ice retreat started before ~15.1 corrected 14C kyrs before present (BP) on the outer shelf and before ~7.7 corrected 14C kyrs BP on the inner shelf, which is broadly synchronous with ice retreat in other Antarctic sectors. The apparent mismatch between the ice-sheet reconstructions from marine and terrestrial data can be attributed to ice streams with very low surface profiles (similar to those of "ice plains") that had advanced through Filchner Trough and Ronne Trough at the LGM. Considering the global sea-level lowstand of ~130 metres below present, a low surface slope of the expanded LGM-ice sheet in the southern Weddell Sea can reconcile grounding-line advance to the shelf break with limited thickening of glaciers and ice streams in the hinterland. This scenario implies that ice-sheet growth in the Weddell Sea sector during the LGM and ice-sheet drawdown throughout the last deglaciation could only have made minor contributions to the major global sea-level fluctuations during these times.

(Table S1) Age determination ofs ediment cores of the Azores Current System

In order to test the sensitivity of marine primary productivity in the midlatitude open ocean North Atlantic to changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), we investigated two spliced sediment cores from a site south of the Azores Islands at the northern rim of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. For this purpose we analyzed coccolithophore assemblages, diatom abundances, alkenones and conducted X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning. During times of reduced AMOC, especially during Heinrich event 1 (H1) and the Younger Dryas, we observe a strong increase in productivity as evidenced by high coccolith accumulation rates, high alkenone concentrations/accumulation rates, high Ba/Ti-ratios, high abundances of diatoms and low abundances ofF. profunda. The increased productivity is partly caused by a more southern position of the Azores Front (AzF), and hence by a less northward extension of the subtropical gyre, as deduced from high abundances of the temperate coccolithophore species G. muellerae and low abundances of subtropical species (Oolithotus spp., Umbellosphaera spp., Umbilicosphaeraspp.). However, to explain the full range of the observed productivity increase, other factors like increased westerly winds and advection of nutrient-rich surface waters have also to be considered. Because this pattern can also be observed in other sediment cores from the midlatitude North Atlantic, we propose that during times of reduced AMOC there has been a band of strongly increased productivity across the North Atlantic at the northern rim of the contracted subtropical gyre, which partly counteracts the decreased organic carbon pump in the high northern latitudes.

Occurrence and isotopic composition (d18O, d13C) of benthic foraminifera in sediments from DSDP Leg 72

Changes in the vertical water mass structure of the Vema Channel during the Pliocene have been inferred from benthic foraminiferal assemblages and stable isotopic analyses from three sites of DSDP Leg 72 (South Atlantic). Faunal and isotopic results from Sites 516A and 518 suggest that a major change occurred in deep-water circulation patterns in the late Pliocene near 3.2 Ma. Benthic oxygen isotopic records from Sites 516A and 518 show a characteristic increase in d18O values near 3.2 Ma. This has been documented in numerous Pliocene isotopic records. The magnitude of the oxygen isotopic enrichment near 3.2 Ma appears to increase with water depth from an average enrichment of 0.34 per mil in Site 516A (1313 m) to an average enrichment of 0.58 per mil in Site 518 (3944 m). We suggest that this enrichment resulted partly from a change in deep-water circulation patterns which included a decrease in bottom-water temperatures. Planktonic d18O values near 3.2 Ma show no evidence of an enrichment which would be indicative of an increase in global ice volume. On the contrary, d18O values in Sites 517 and 518 become more depleted near 3.2 Ma, indicating a surface-water warming perhaps due to a change in the strength and/or position of the Brazil Current. An increase in the relative abundance of the benthic foraminifer Nuttalides umbonifera, which is associated with Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) in the modern ocean, coincides with the benthic 18O enrichment in Site 518. At 3.2 Ma, oxygen and carbon isotopic gradients between Sites 518 (3944 m) and 516A (1313 m) show a marked increase such that Site 518 becomes enriched in 18O and depleted in 13C relative to Site 516A. This enrichment in d18O is interpreted as partly representing a temperature decrease at Site 518; the depletion in d13C indicates a corrosive water mass which is high in metabolic CO2. We suggest that benthic foraminiferal and stable isotopic changes in Site 518 resulted from a pulse-like increase in the formation of AABW near 3.2 Ma. The cause of this circulation event may have been linked to global cooling and/or the final closure of the Central American Seaway.

Sequential variation of carbonate cycles in South Atlantic DSDP locations

We report well-dated Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary precessional climatic cycles, recorded by rhythmic carbonate maxima and minima in South Atlantic deep sea sites. Spectral analyses of digitized sediment color, a suitable carbonate proxy, show prominent regularities in the spacing marl-carbonate beds. Magnetostratigraphic dating over a number of magnetic chrons constrains the duration of the cycles, which can be detected over at least 20 Myr of sedimentation at 7 coring locations. Their mean absolute period of 23.5 +/- 4.4kyr agrees closely with the predicted late Cretaceous precessional period of 20.8 kyr. Because they can be matched to a physical forcing mechanism with a known repeat time, the cycles offer a new high-resolution tool to measure rates of climate change before and after the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) boundary. From counts of carbonate cycles, we derive the position of the K/T boundary within C29R at 350 kyr after the base of the reversal. The constancy of cycle thickness (linearly related to sedimentation rate) and amplitude up to the "boundary clay" does not give evidence for climate instability preceding the boundary. Orbital chronometry records a step-function decrease in sediment accumulation rate at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary that is consistent with a geologically instantaneous event.

(Table 2) Stratigraphic position of midpoints of reddish and beige layers of lithologic cycles in the Loulja-A Section and their astronomical ages after tuning to the ETP and Summer Insolation Curves of the La2004 solution

An integrated high-resolution stratigraphy and orbital tuning is presented for the Loulja sections located in the Bou Regreg area on the Atlantic side of Morocco. The sections constitute the upward continuation of the upper Messinian Ain el Beida section and contain a well-exposed, continuous record of the interval straddling the Miocene-Pliocene (M-P) boundary. The older Loulja-A section, which covers the interval from ~5.59 to 5.12 Ma, reveals a dominantly precession-controlled color cyclicity that allows for a straightforward orbital tuning of the boundary interval and for detailed cyclostratigraphic correlations to the Mediterranean; the high-resolution and high-quality benthic isotope record allows us to trace the dominantly obliquity-controlled glacial history. Our results reveal that the M-P boundary coincides with a minor, partly precession-related shift to lighter "interglacial" values in d18O. This shift and hence the M-P boundary may not correlate with isotope stage TG5, as previously thought, but with an extra (weak) obliquity-controlled cycle between TG7 and TG5. Consequently, the M-P boundary and basal Pliocene flooding of the Mediterranean following the Messinian salinity crisis are not associated with a major deglaciation and glacio-eustatic sea level rise, indicating that other factors, such as tectonics, must have played a fundamental role. On the other hand, the onset of the Upper Evaporites in the Mediterranean marked by hyposaline conditions coincides with the major deglaciation step between marine isotope stage TG12 and TG11, suggesting that the associated sea level rise is at least partly responsible for the apparent onset of intermittently restricted marine conditions following the main desiccation phase. Finally, the Loulja-A section would represent an excellent auxiliary boundary stratotype for the M-P boundary as formally defined at the base of the Trubi marls in the Eraclea Minoa section on Sicily.

(Table 1) Position and astronomical ages of sedimentary cycles in the eastern Mediterranean Sea

An astronomically calibrated timescale has recently been established [Hilgen, 1991, doi:10.1016/0012-821X(91)90082-S; doi:10.1016/0012-821X(91)90206-W] for the Pliocene and earliest Pleistocene based on the correlation of dominantly precession controlled sedimentary cycles (sapropels and carbonate cycles) in Mediterranean marine sequences to the precession time series of the astronomical solution of Berger and Loutre [1991, doi:10.1016/0277-3791(91)90033-Q ] (hereinafter referred to as Ber90). Here we evaluate the accuracy of this timescale by (1) comparing the sedimentary cycle patterns with 65°N summer insolation time series of different astronomical solutions and (2) a cross-spectral comparison between the obliquity-related components in the 65°N summer insolation curves and high-resolution paleoclimatic records derived from the same sections used to construct the timescale. Our results show that the carbonate cycles older than 3.5 m.y. should be calibrated to one precession cycle older than previously proposed. Application of the astronomical solution of Laskar [1990, doi:10.1016/0019-1035(90)90084-M], (hereinafter referred to as La90) with present-day values for the dynamical ellipticity of the Earth and tidal dissipation by the Sun and Moon results in the best fit with the geological record, indicating that this solution is the most accurate from a geological point of view. Application of Ber90, or La90 solutions with dynamical ellipticity values smaller or larger than the present-day value, results in a less obvious fit with the geological record. This implies that the change in the planetary shape of the Earth associated with ice loading and unloading near the poles during the last 5.3 million years was too small to drive the precession into resonance with the perturbation term, s6-g6+g5, of Jupiter and Saturn. Our new timescale results in a slight but significant modification of all ages of the sedimentary cycles, bioevents, reversal boundaries, chronostratigraphic boundaries, and glacial cycles. Moreover, a comparison of this timescale with the astronomical timescales of ODP site 846 [Shackleton et al., 1995, doi:10.2973/odp.proc.sr.138.106.1995; doi:10.2973/odp.proc.sr.138.117.1995] and ODP site 659 [Tiedemann et al., 1994, doi:10.1029/94PA00208] indicates that all obliquity-related glacial cycles prior to ~4.7 Ma in ODP sites 659 and 846 should be correlated with one obliquity cycle older than previously proposed.

Geochemistry and position of turbidites in the Cap Timiris Canyon off Mauritania

This study of sediments from the Cap Timiris Canyon demonstrates that geochemical data can provide reliable age-depth correlation even of highly turbiditic cores and attempts to improve our understanding of how turbidite emplacement is linked to climatic-related sea-level changes. The canyon incises the continental margin off NW Africa and is an active conduit for turbidity currents. In sediment cores from levee and intrachannel sites turbidites make up 6-42% of sediment columns. Age models were fitted to all studied cores by correlating downcore element data to dated reference cores, once turbidite beds had been removed from the dataset. These age models enabled us to determine turbidite emplacement times. The Cap Timiris Canyon has been active at least over the last 245 kyr, with turbidite deposition seemingly linked to stage boundaries and glacial stages. The highly turbiditic core from the intrachannel site postdates to ~15 kyr and comprises Holocene and late Pleistocene sediments. Turbidite deposition at this site was associated especially with the rapid sea-level rise at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. During the Holocene, turbidity current activity decreased but did not cease.