Ice-rafted volcanic ash in the South Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean during the last 100,000 years

Eucampia antarctica (Castr.) Mangin abundance curves for two piston cores from the western Agulhas Basin (southeast Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean) were used to place volcanic glass shard and ice-rafted debris abundance curves into a stratigraphic framework for the last 100,000 years. A direct correlation is shown between increased abundance of E. antarctica, tephra and ice-rafted debris; low abundances are often characterized by calcareous sediment in the northern core. Peaks in abundance of E. antarctica have been interpreted as an indication of glacial periods and the increased ice-rafted debris and tephra during glacial periods is evidence for an ice-rafted origin for the tephra.Microprobe geochemical analysis of volcanic glass shards provides no single distinct source for the ash. The geochemical data is consistent, but not definitive, with a primary source in the Scotia Arc and a minor source from Bouvet Island. Between core correlations of geochemically “fingerprinted” dispersed tephra zones were not successful due to variability of glass shard geochemistry and limited sample size.