Age determination, carbon geochemistry and palynology of section AC003

Sedimentary records from California's Northern Channel Islands and the adjacent Santa Barbara Basin (SBB) indicate intense regional biomass burning (wildfire) at the Ållerød-Younger Dryas boundary (~13.0-12.9 ka) (All age ranges in this paper are expressed in thousands of calendar years before present [ka]. Radiocarbon ages will be identified and clearly marked "14C years".). Multiproxy records in SBB Ocean Drilling Project (ODP) Site 893 indicate that these wildfires coincided with the onset of regional cooling and an abrupt vegetational shift from closed montane forest to more open habitats. Abrupt ecosystem disruption is evident on the Northern Channel Islands at the Ållerød-Younger Dryas boundary with the onset of biomass burning and resulting mass sediment wasting of the landscape. These wildfires coincide with the extinction of Mammuthus exilis [pygmy mammoth]. The earliest evidence for human presence on these islands at 13.1-12.9 ka (~11,000-10,900 14C years) is followed by an apparent 600-800 year gap in the archaeological record, which is followed by indications of a larger-scale colonization after 12.2 ka. Although a number of processes could have contributed to a post 18 ka decline in M. exilis populations (e.g., reduction of habitat due to sea-level rise and human exploitation of limited insular populations), we argue that the ultimate demise of M. exilis was more likely a result of continental scale ecosystem disruption that registered across North America at the onset of the Younger Dryas cooling episode, contemporaneous with the extinction of other megafaunal taxa. Evidence for ecosystem disruption at 13-12.9 ka on these offshore islands is consistent with the Younger Dryas boundary cosmic impact hypothesis [Firestone et al., 2007, doi:10.1073/pnas.0706977104].

Age determination and sedimentology of sediment core Lz1101 from the Melles Lake

A lacustrine sediment core from Store Koldewey, northeast Greenland, was biogeochemically, biologically and sedimentologically investigated in order to reconstruct long- and short-term climatic and environmental variability. The chronology of the uppermost 189 cm of the record is based on ten 14C AMS age determinations of aquatic mosses. The record covers almost the entire Holocene and revealed changes on multidecadal to centennial scales. Dating of the oldest mosses shows that lacustrine biogenic productivity already began at around 11 cal. kyr BP. This age pre-dates the onset of biogenic productivity in other lakes on Store Koldewey by about 2 kyr. In spite of the early onset of biogenic production organic matter accumulation remained low and minerogenic sedimentation dominated. At about 9.5 cal. kyr BP moss, sulphur, organic carbon and biogenic silica content started to increase, indicating that the environment stabilized and the biogenic production in the lake adjusted to more preferable conditions. Subsequently, the biogenic productivity experienced repeated changes and varied both on long- and short-term scales. The long-term trend shows a maximum during the early Holocene thus responding to increased temperatures during the Holocene Thermal Maximum. Superimposed on the long-term trend, biogenic productivity also experienced repeated short-term fluctuations that match partly the NGRIP temperatures. The most pronounced decrease of biogenic productivity occurred at around 8.2 cal. kyr BP. Perennial lake ice coverage resulting from low temperatures is supposed to have caused decreased lacustrine biogenic productivity. From the middle Holocene to the present repeated decreases of productivity occurred that could be related to periods with severe sea-ice conditions of the East Greenland Current. Besides the dependence on air temperature it therefore demonstrates the sensitivity of lacustrine biogenic productivity in coastal high arctic areas to short-term cold spells that are mediated by the currents emanating from the Arctic Ocean. However, the data also emphasize the difficulties associated with the interpretation of lacustrine records.

Age marks in bottom sediments of the Pacific Ocean

Distribution of K-Ar age marks in Pacific bottom sediments is shown on the base of large analytical material. Dependence of K-Ar age marks on abundance of potassium-bearing authigenic diagenetic minerals (glauconite, phillipsite) widely spread in the studied part of the World Oceans.

Chemical composition, age, and magnetic parameters of igneous rocks from the Franz Josef Land

A combined study of magnetic parameters of basalt and andesite samples has been carried out in the framework of geological investigations of the Franz Josef Land. This study has included determination of coercivity, saturation magnetization, Curie points, natural remanent magnetization (NRM), and magnetic susceptibility as well as examination of ferromagnetic minerals with a microscope. Data on chemical composition of the rocks have been obtained for all the samples, and radiological ages have been determined for the majority of the rocks. Thermomagnetic curves of the samples have been subdivided into four types depending on composition of ferromagnetic NRM carriers. Data showing multiple changes in the predominant composition of the igneous rocks have been obtained. Each stage of magmatism is characterized by a specific type of the ferromagnetic component in the rocks and, therefore, magnetomineralogical investigations can be used for differentiation and correlation of the igneous rocks.

Age of samples from the sedimentary cover of the Primorye continental slope and from the submarine Bogorov Rise

Results of a complex study of the sedimentary cover (continuous seismic profiling and diatom analysis) in the northeastern Sea of Japan including the Bogorov Rise an adjacent part of the Japan Basin and the continental slope, are presented. Two varied-age complexes were distinguished in the sedimentary cover of the continental slope of Primorye: Middle Miocene and Late Miocene - Pleistocene. These complexes formed in a stable tectonic setting with no significant vertical movements. A depression in the acoustic basement is located along the continental slope and it is divided from the Japan Basin by a group of volcanic structures, the most uplifted part of which forms the Bogorov Rise. The depression probably formed before Middle Miocene. In Middle Miocene the Bogorov Rise was already at depths close to modern ones. In the sedimentary cover near the Bogorov Rise buried zones were found. Probably they were channels for gas transportation in pre-Pleistocene. Deformations of sediments that occurred in the beginning of Pleistocene are established in the basin.

Age model of ODP Site 162-983

At ODP Site 983, relative geomagnetic paleointensity and planktic and benthic delta18O records have been acquired for the last 350 kyr. The mean sedimentation rate in this interval is 11.3 cm/kyr. Magnetic properties and hysteresis ratios indicate that pseudo-single domain magnetite is the remanence carrier. Volume susceptibility (kappa), anhysteretic (ARM) and isothermal (IRM) remanence values vary by a factor of 3-4, well within the criteria usually cited for paleointensity studies. Natural remanent magnetization (NRM) is normalized by ARM and IRM to acquire the paleointensity proxy. Arithmetic means of NRM/ARM and NRM/IRM, calculated for five demagnetization steps in the 25-45 mT range, constitute the relative paleointensity estimates. Some paleointensity lows (particularly those at ~40, ~120 and ~188 ka) are associated with directional excursions of the field, especially the event at ~188 ka (referred to here as the Iceland Basin Event) that constitutes a short-lived polarity reversal. For the last 200 kyr, the records can be correlated with other high-resolution paleointensity records such as those from the Labrador Sea, Mediterranean/Somali Basin and Sulu Sea, implying that the millennial scale features are globally synchronous. A labeling system for paleointensity features is proposed that ties prominent highs and lows to oxygen isotope stages.

Paleogene and early Neogene planktonic foraminifera of ODP sites 119-738 and 119-744

A virtually complete composite history of Cenozoic pelagic sedimentation was recovered from ODP Sites 738 (62°43' S) and 744 (61°35' S), drilled during Leg 119 on the Kerguelen Plateau. An excellent magnetobiochronologic record was obtained from upper Eocene through Holocene sediments at Site 744, and an expanded lower Paleocene through lower Oligocene sequence was cored at Hole 738. Analysis of the stratigraphic distribution of over 125 planktonic foraminifer taxa from these sites reveals changes in species composition that were strongly influenced by the climatic evolution of Antarctic water masses. Early Paleocene planktonic foraminifer assemblages are nearly identical in species composition to coeval assemblages from low and middle latitude sites, showing the same patterns of post-extinction recovery and taxonomic radiation. Biogeographic isolation, revealed by the absence of tropical keeled species, became apparent by late early Paleocene time. Diversity increased near the Paleocene/Eocene boundary when keeled morozovellids immigrated to the Kerguelen Plateau. Greatest diversity (23 species) was achieved by early Eocene time, corresponding to a Cenozoic warming maximum that has been recognized in lower Eocene deep sea and terrestrial sediments worldwide. A gradual decline in diversity from the late early through middle Eocene, primarily due to the disappearance of acarininids, parallels the record of cooling paleotemperatures in Southern Ocean surface waters. Chiloguembelina-dominated assemblages appeared in the late middle Eocene and persisted through the early Oligocene as Antarctic surface waters became thermally isolated. Late Eocene and early Oligocene assemblages exhibit considerably lower diversity than the older Eocene faunas, and were dominated by chiloguembelinids, subbotinids, and catapsydracids during a time of pronounced climatic cooling and development of continental glaciation on East Antarctica. The small foraminifer Globigerinit? juvenilis replaced chiloguembelinids as the dominant taxon during the late Oligocene. Diversity increased slightly toward the end of the late Oligocene with new appearances of several tenuitellid, globoturborotalitid, and globigerinid species. The trend toward diminishing planktonic foraminifer diversity was renewed during the late early Miocene as siliceous productivity increased in the Antarctic surface waters, culminating with the reduction to nearly monospecific assemblages of Neogloboqu?drin? p?chyderm? that occur in Pliocene-Holocene biosiliceous sediments. An Antarctic Paleogene zonal scheme previously devised for ODP Sites 689 and 690 in the Weddell Sea is used to biostratigraphically subdivide the Kerguelen Plateau sequence. The definition of one Antarctic Paleogene biozone is modified in the present study to facilitate correlation within the southern high latitudes. The ages of 13 late Eoceneearly Miocene datum events are calibrated based on a magnetobiochronologic age model developed for Site 744.