Stable carbon and oxygen isotopes distribution in carbonates from the Central Barents Sea shelf sediments

Carbonate macrofaunal remains and diagenetic tubes collected from a number of structures in the Central Barents Sea area during the 18th TTR (Training Through Research) cruise were subdivided into three groups according to the results of stable carbon and oxygen isotopes analysis. The first group includes carbonates that were formed from bicarbonate only from surrounding sea waters. The carbonates of the second group were formed during diagenesis with use of mixed sources of bicarbonate. The fourth group includes methane-derived carbonates that were formed as a result of anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM).     

Neodymium isotopes in the Mediterranean Sea: comparison between seawater and sediment signals

Nine depth-profiles of dissolved Nd concentrations and isotopic ratios (ε_Nd) were obtained in the Levantine Basin, the Ionian, the Aegean, the Alboran Seas and the Strait of Gibraltar. Thirteen core-top sediments and Nile River particle samples were also analyzed (leached with 1 N HCl, acetic acid or hydroxylamine hydrochloride). The seawater ε_Nd values become more radiogenic during the eastward circulation in the Mediterranean Sea. The relationship between salinity and the seawater ε_Nd shows that the Nd isotopic signature is more conservative than salinity in the Mediterranean Sea. The water mass with the highest ε_Nd (−4.8) is found at about 200 m in the easternmost Levantine basin. The average ε_Nd value for deep waters is −7.0 in the eastern basin, 2.5 ε-units higher than in the western basin. By examining the sensitivity of seawater ε_Nd to Nd inputs from the Nile, we conclude that the most significant radiogenic Nd source is partially dissolved Nile River particles. The Nd flux from the Nile River water has a minor influence on the Mediterranean seawater ε_Nd. Except for the easternmost Levantine Basin, the leachate ε_Nd values are consistent with the seawater values. In the easternmost Levantine Basin, the leachate ε_Nd values obtained with HCl leaching are systematically higher than the seawater values. The relationship between leachate and residual ε_Nd values indicates that the HCl leaching partially dissolves lithogenic Nd, so the dissolution of Nile River particles is the cause of the observed shift. Some ε_Nd values obtained with hydroxylamine hydrochloride leaching are higher than those obtained with HCl leaching. Although the reason for this shift is not clear, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr successfully detects the presence of a nonmarine component in the leachate. Our results suggest that leaching performance may vary with the mineralogy of marine sediments, at least in the case of the Mediterranean Sea.     

Sea-ice transport of riverine particles from the Laptev Sea to Fram Strait based on clay mineral studies

The aim of this study was to identify pathways and processes of modern sediment transport from the Siberian hinterland to the Laptev Sea and further to the Arctic Ocean. Clay mineral analyses were performed on riverine suspended particulate material (SPM), surface sediments of the Laptev Sea shelf, and sea-ice sediments (SIS). Material collected during seven expeditions was included in this study. Clay mineral assemblages are used to decipher the distribution of riverine sediments on the shallow Laptev Sea shelf, the entrainment of fine particles into newly forming ice, and the transport of SIS from the Laptev Sea towards the ablation areas. A cluster analysis of our data set shows that the clay mineral assemblages of Laptev Sea shelf sediments and SIS are controlled mainly by the input of riverine SPM supplied by the Khatanga, Lena, and Yana Rivers. Whereas the western shelf clay-mineral province is characterized by enhanced smectite concentrations supplied by the Khatanga River, the eastern Laptev Sea is dominated by illite discharged through the Lena and Yana Rivers. The SIS smectite concentration serves as an indicator for sediment source areas on the circum-Arctic shelves. Subsequently, the Transpolar Drift can be distinguished into a Siberian Branch fed from the eastern Kara Sea and the western Laptev Sea, and a Polar Branch originating from the eastern Laptev Sea.     

Natural decrease of the intensity level of artificial radioactive isotopes in the Barents Sea

The results of radioecological investigations carried out within the framework of the Russian-Finnish high-latitude expedition in 2007 are presented. The characteristics of the present-day accumulation level of the significant radioecological isotopes ¹³⁷Cs, ⁹⁰Sr and ^239,240Pu in the Barents Sea are described. The comparative analysis is performed for the radiation pollution of the environment in the 1980s and 1990s and in the first decade of the 21st century. Natural purification processes in the marine environment are the main factors of the decrease in the intensity level of artificial radioactive isotopes. These processes include repeated dilution, nuclear decay, occlusion by sediments and suspended solid material, and accumulation by aquatic inhabitants. A stable decreasing trend is observed for the intensity level of artificial radioactive isotopes in the Barents Sea.     

Late Quaternary contourites and glaciomarine sedimentation in the Fram Strait

Two sites in the eastern Fram Strait, the Vestnesa Ridge and the Yermak Plateau, have been surveyed and sampled providing a depositional record over the last glacial‐interglacial cycle. The Fram Strait is the only deep‐water connection from the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic and contains a marine sediment record of both high latitude thermohaline flow and ice sheet interaction. On the Vestnesa Ridge, the western Svalbard margin, a sediment drift was identified in 1226 m of water. Gravity and multicores from the crest of the drift recovered turbidites and contourites. ¹⁴C dating indicates an age range of 8287 to 26 900 years BP (Early Holocene to Late Weichselian). The Yermak Plateau is characterized by slope sediments in 961 m of water. Gravity and multicores recovered contourites and hemipelagites. ¹⁴C ages were between 8615 and 46 437 years BP (Early Holocene to mid‐Weichselian). Downcore dinoflagellate cyst analyses from both sites provide a record of changing surface water conditions since the mid‐Weichselian, suggesting variable sea ice extent, productivity and polynyas present even during the Last Glacial Maximum. Four layers of ice‐rafted debris were also identified and correlated within the cores. These events occurred ca at 9, 24 to 25, 26 to 27 and 43 ka, asynchronous with Heinrich layers in the wider north‐east Atlantic and here interpreted as reflecting instability in the Svalbard/Barents Ice sheet and the northward advection of warm Atlantic water during the Late Weichselian. The activity of the ancestral West Spitsbergen Current is interpreted using mean sortable silt records from the cores. On the Vestnesa Ridge drift the modern mass accumulation rate, calculated using excess ²¹⁰Pb, is 0·076 g cm^?2 year^?1. On the Yermak Plateau slope the modern mass accumulation rate is 0·053 g cm^?2 year^?1.     

New data on the concentration of plutonium isotopes in the sediments of the Barents Sea

Doklady Earth Sciences -     

Iron and Manganese Minerals in Suspended Matter from the Barents Sea

The mineralogy of suspended matter from surface and bottom waters is studied at two sites in the Barents Sea. Along with terrigenous minerals, the suspended matter samples contain authigenic mineral phases of iron and manganese oxyhydroxides. Mn-feroxyhite, Fe-vernadite, goethite, and proto-ferrihydrite were identified in samples from surface waters, whereas birnessite and nonferruginous vernadite were registered in samples from bottom waters. The formation of suspended manganese minerals in bottom waters is explained by an additional Mn supply from underlying reduced sediments during their early diagenesis and oxygen depletion in the near-bottom nepheloid layer. Bacteria are supposed to take part in the authigenic mineral formation.     

Methane cycle in the Barents Sea

Biogeochemical cycle of methane in the Barents Sea was studied using isotope geochemistry to determine the rates of microbial methane oxidation. It was established that microbiological processes (glucose consumption, ¹⁴CO₂ assimilation, sulfate reduction, and slow methane oxidation) in oxidized surface and weakly reduced sediments are marked by only insignificant change in SO ₄ ^2? concentration and absence of notable growth of total alkalinity and N/NH₄ downward the sediment core. Microbial methane productivity was 0.111 × 10⁶ mol day^?1. Taking into account the volume of water column, microbial methane consumption therein can be as much as 1.8 × 10⁶ mol day^?1.     

Fram Strait ice flux calculations and associated Arctic ice conditions

The areal outflow of ice through Fram Strait during the period 1953–1984 is estimated on a monthly basis from the geostrophic wind and the ice concentration. Summer ice coverage in various sectors of the Arctic is then compared with the computed outflow through Fram Strait in various antecedent periods. Lag correlations indicate that interannual variations of summer ice severity in the Pacific side of the Arctic Basin are consistent with fluctuations of Fram Strait outflow during the previous 3–9 months. The findlings suggest that above-normal outflow of multiyear ice during the winter/spring months may precondition the large-scale pack ice to respond more directly to offshore flow events during the ensuing months.The areas of highest correlation with Fram Strait outflow undergo a pronounced shift in the early 1970's. Coincident changes in the large-scale circulation pattern imply that the source region of the Transpolar Drift Stream shifted westward from the Alaskan to the Siberian waters during this period.     

Crustal structure of the Barents Sea from seismic data

In 1976, the Institute of Physics of the Earth and the Institute of Oceanology, the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, carried out deep seismic soundings in the Barents Sea along a profile 700 km long northeast of Murmansk. A system of reversed and overlapping traveltime curves from 200 to 400 km long has been obtained. The wave correlation was effected by several independent approaches, which identified on the records the refracted and reflected waves from boundaries in the Earth's crust and the upper mantle. Different methods were applied for the solution of the inverse problem: the isochrone method, the intercept-time method, and the iteration method.The use of these different methods gives an indication of the general applicability of the interpretation and of the most reliable elements in the seismic model.All the interpretations and representations of the section positively establish an essentially horizontal inhomogeneity of the Earth's crust in the Barents Sea. On the whole the structure is similar to that of deep sedimentary basins of the East European platform. The thickness of the sedimentary layer varies from 8 to 17 km, the average crustal thickness is about 35–40 km; the velocities in the upper part of the consolidated crust are 5.8–6.4 km/s; in the lower crust they are 6.8–7.0 km/s and higher.     

Recent climatic tendencies in the Barents Sea

Based on the results of multiannual oceanographic research at the Murmansk Marine Biological Institute in the “Kola Meridian” secular section, the recent tendencies of cyclic climate changes in the Barents Sea are discussed on the basis of the data on ice coverage and coastal meteorological conditions. It has been shown that a return from the extremely warm and warm state to the normal one was observed in the period of winter 2005/06–winter 2010/11. Further, this may be changed both to cooling and warming, which verifies the hypothesis about predominance of cyclic natural variability in the thermal and ice characteristics of the Arctic Region.     

Bitumoids of Holocene Sediments in the Barents Sea

Doklady Earth Sciences - The results of studying the content, composition, and distribution of chloroform bitumoids (CBs) in the Holocene sediments of the Barents Sea (cruise 68 of the R/V Akademik...     

Late Quaternary glaciation in the south-western Barents Sea

Moraine ridges have been morphologically and seismically identified in the south-western Barents Sea. Some of these ridges were deposited in front of ice lobes from the northern part of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet, others in front of glaciers located on the southern Barents Sea shelf. The moraine ridges were probably deposited during the Weichselian, possibly the Late Weichselian.     

Opening of the Fram Strait gateway: A review of plate tectonic constraints

We have revised the regional crustal structure, oceanic age distribution, and conjugate margin segmentation in and around the Lena Trough, the oceanic part of the Fram Strait between the Norwegian–Greenland Sea and the Eurasia Basin (Arctic Ocean). The Lena Trough started to open after Eurasia–Greenland relative plate motions changed from right-lateral shear to oblique divergence at Chron 13 times (33.3 Ma; earliest Oligocene). A new Bouguer gravity map, supported by existing seismic data and aeromagnetic profiles, has been applied to interpret the continent–ocean transition and the influence of Eocene shear structures on the timing of breakup and initial seafloor spreading. Assuming that the onset of deep-water exchange depended on the formation of a narrow, oceanic corridor, the gateway formed during early Miocene times (20–15 Ma). However, if the initial Lena Trough was blocked by terrigenous sediments or was insufficiently subsided to allow for deep-water circulation, the gateway probably formed with the first well developed magnetic seafloor spreading anomaly around Chron 5 times (9.8 Ma; Late Miocene). Paleoceanographic changes at ODP Site 909 (northern Hovgård Ridge) are consistent with both hypotheses of gateway formation. We cannot rule out that a minor gateway formed across stretched continental crust prior to the onset of seafloor spreading in the Lena Trough. The gravity, seismic and magnetic observations question the prevailing hypotheses on the Yermak Plateau and the Morris Jesup Rise as Eocene oceanic plateaus and the Hovgård Ridge as a microcontinent.     

Erosion and uplift uncertainties in the Barents Sea, Norway

Three different types of methods are used to assess the ability to determine erosion amounts and to provide estimates of uncertainty. In the situation of dynamical indicator methods, such as seismic velocity, sonic logs, density logs, or drilling exponent methods, intrinsic assumptions and parameter values used provide only a broad statement on the resolution of uplift/erosion events. None of the methods is more accurate, at best, to better than ± 1 km and likely much worse. For geological model procedures, exemplified by considerations of Airy isostasy and by bed upturning near a salt dome in the Nordkapp Basin of the Barents Sea, the uncertainties are again of the order of ± 500–1000 m. With thermal indicator procedures, the bulk of the constraint information from available data is needed to determine paleoheat flux with little left over to constrain the erosion, implying a minimum uncertainty of ± 500 m on erosion determinations. No method seems capable of resolving erosional events to better than a minimum uncertainty of ± 500 m, and likely no better than ± 1 km.     

Rare earth abundance patterns in ferromanganese concretions from the Gulf of Bothnia and the Barents Sea

Ferromanganese concretions from the Svalbard shelf in the Barents Sea show slightly convex shale-normalized REE patterns with no Eu anomalies. Concretions from the Gulf of Bothnia, northern part of the Baltic Sea, exhibit an enrichment of light REE and negative Eu anomalies. This difference is interpreted as a consequence of different conveyor mechanisms of the REE to the sediment.It is suggested that dissolving biogenic debris contributes to the convex pattern obtained in the Barents Sea, whereas an inorganic suspended fraction with scavenged REE is the main carrier in the Gulf of Bothnia. During oxic diagenesis in the sediment, the scavenged REE are set free into the porewater and contribute to the distribution pattern in concretions found in the Gulf of Bothnia.Small Mn-rich spheroidal concretions are enriched two to five times in REE compared to average shale, whereas Mn-poor flat concretions are low in REE. Specific surface area of the concretion and the depth of burial in the oxidized surface sediment are two factors that strongly affect the enrichment of the REE.Weak Ce anomalies are present in the analysed concretions and a redox level dependence is seen.     

Origin of diamictons on the Barents Sea shelf

Occurrence conditions and lithological-paleontological characteristics of two diamicton units developed in the southeastern segment of the Barents Sea shelf are considered. It is shown that they are lithologically analogous to the present-day (undoubtedly aqueous) diamicton mud. Correlation between bulk densities of both varieties and consolidation degree (consistency) is described by a single regression equation. We present pieces of evidence contradicting the widespread point of view about the diamicton as a glacial till moving along the seafloor. They are primarily represented by paleontological remains, mainly foraminiferal assemblages. It is shown that dislocations observed in cores and traditionally considered as glaciotectonic movements are confined to fault zones in the acoustic basement and they represent fragments of secondary neotectonic structures. Ridges and hills mapped previously as glacial accumulation morphostructures reflect a relict topography of the recent subaerial shelf development not masked by sedimentation so far.     

The chemistry and mineralogy of the clay fraction of sediments from the southern Barents Sea

The separated clay fraction (material <μ) of surface and sub-surface sediment samples from the southwestern Barents Sea is described. The partitioning of the major and minor elements within the different grain-size fractions of the sediment and between detrital and non-detrital phases demonstrates that the clay chemistry of these oxic shelf sediments is terrigenous in origin.The clays are a variable mixture of micaceous debris and illite with chloritic material, minor expandable clay and occasional kaolinite. Carbonate debris and amphibole occur locally. The semi-quantitative analysis suggests the existence of a considerable variation in the relative content of the principal mineralogical components and this is confirmed by the investigation of the major and minor elements. The terrigenous chemistry provides a more sensitive index of clay variability and allows the recognition of three distinct petrographic provinces.