Bathymetry of Molloy Deep: Fram Strait between Svalbard and Greenland

The sea floor of Fram Strait, the over 2500 m deep passage between the Arctic Ocean and the Norwegian-Greenland Sea, is part of a complex transform zone between the Knipovich mid-oceanic ridge of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea and the Nansen-Gakkel Ridge of the Arctic Ocean. Because linear magnetic anomalies formed by sea-floor spreading have not been found, the precise location of the boundary between the Eurasian and the North American plate is unknown in this region. Systematic surveying of Fram Strait with SEABEAM and high resolution seismic profiling began in 1984 and continued in 1985 and 1987, providing detailed morphology of the Fram Strait sea floor and permitting better definition of its morphotectonics. The 1984 survey presented in this paper provided a complete set of bathymetric data from the southernmost section of the Svalbard Transform, including the Molloy Fracture Zone, connecting the Knipovich Ridge to the Molloy Ridge; and the Molloy Deep, a nodal basin formed at the intersection of the Molloy Transform Fault and the Molloy Ridge. This nodal basin has a revised maximum depth of 5607 m water depth at 79°8.5N and 2°47E.     

Facies distribution and dissolution depths of surface sediment components from the Vema channel and the Rio Grande rise (southwest Atlantic Ocean)

Surface sediments from the Vema channel and from the Rio Grande rise (western extremity) contain less calcareous fossils with increasing water depth. The pteropodal (aragonite) lysocline corresponds to the 3200-m isobath. The pteropodal compensation depth is found above the lower boundary of the North Atlantic Deep Water: 3500 m. The planktonic foraminiferal lysocline (4050 m) seems to be very close to the abyssal thermocline and is therefore here the upper limit of the Antarctic Bottom Water. The foraminiferal and the coccolith compensation depths seem to coincide: 4500 m. Distribution and dissolution of calcareous sediment components are the same all around the western extremity of the Rio Grande rise (southern, western and northern flanks).     

Stratigraphische Untersuchungen an Sedimentkernen des ibero-marokkanischen Kontinentalrandes

Zusammenfassung Biostratigraphie und Ergebnisse der Grobkornanalyse an Sedimenten vom marokkanischen und portugiesischen Kontinentalhang werden an zwei Kernen erläutert. Folgende Parameter scheinen sich besonders zur Korrelation zu eignen: Anteil des terrigenen Materiales an der Sandfraktion, Pteropodengehalt, Korngrößenverteilung des terrigenen Detritus, relative Temperaturangaben nach planktonischen Foraminiferen, Windungssinn von dreiGloborotalia- Arten. Beide Kerne erreichen Sedimente der letzten Kaltzeit, was dadurch unterstrichen wird, daß eistransportiertes, terrigenes Material und Hinweise auf Temperaturminima nach planktonischen Foraminiferen zusammenfallen.

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Biostratigraphy and the results of the sand grain analysis on Moroccan and Portuguese continental slope sediments are discussed. The investigation is based on samples taken from two cores. The following parameters seem to be well suited for correlation: The percentage of the terrigenous material of the sand-fraction, the pteropod content, grainsize distribution of the terrigeneous material, temperature curves based on planktonic foraminifera and coiling ratios of threeGloborotalia species.In both cores sediments from the last glacial period are reached. This is demonstrated by a very good correlation between the ice-transported terrigenous material and the temperature minima as determined by planktonic foraminifera.

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Résumé Notre présente étude concerne la biostratigraphie et l'analyse sédimentologique de deux carottes prélevées sur la pente continentale maroco-portugaise. Des corrélations ont été déduites de l'évolution des paramètres suivants: Pourcentage du matériel terrigène et des ptéropodes de la fraction sableuse, répartition granulométrique du matériel terrigène, variation faunique des foraminifères planctoniques, sens de l'enroulement de trois espèces deGloborotalia.Ces deux sondages pénètrent dans les sédiments de la dernière période glaciaire. La présence de matériel terrigène transporté par les glaces et les indications de température fournies par les foraminifères planctoniques s'harmonisent et confirment l'affirmation précédente.

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. : , Pterododen, , , Globorotalia. . .

     

COMBINED EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF FORMULAE FOR EROSION AND DEPOSITION OF COHESIVE SEDIMENTS

1 mTsonvCTIoxTIansport of fine cOhesive sedinds inevitably leads to the develoPment of sediment deposits inreservoirs or zones with small flow velocihes in lowland rivers. Such sediment dePosits often conshtUte aconsiderable ecological danger, as cOhesive sediInnts have the ability to bind POllutants like heavymetals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocrtons or chlorinated hydrocaIbons (F6f8iner, l989). In the case of anextreme hydraUlic event like a flood or a reservoir dePlehon, erosion of cone…     

Paleogeography and paleobathymetry of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic North Atlantic Ocean

The history of the North Atlantic Ocean has been traced quantitatively back in time using age and subsidence of the oceanic crust in an attempt to reconstruct the vertical and horizontal elements of its physiographic evolution. Special emphasis has been paid to the history of the Iceland-Faeroe Ridge and of the epicontinental seas around this young basin. The implications of this evolution for changes in the hydrographic regime and for temporal as well as spatial contraints of the surface and bottom water circulation of the North Atlantic are enormous. During its early history this part of the world ocean was connected to the circum-equatorial Tethys Ocean (Late Jurassic to mid-Cretaceous). However, the formation of a deep water pathway to the South Atlantic towards the end of the Mesozoic and the opening of the Norwegian-Greenland Seas during the Early Cenozoic caused the North Atlantic to become part a longitudinal basin allowing an exchange between the Artic and Antarctic polar water masses.Dedicated to Professor Dr. E. Seibold, President of the German Research Society, on the occasion of his 60th birthday.     

Composition and Flux of Holocene Sediments on the Eastern Laptev Sea Shelf, Arctic Siberia

A 467-cm-long core from the inner shelf of the eastern Laptev Sea provides a depositional history since 9400 cal yr. B.P. The history involves temporal changes in the fluvial runoff as well as postglacial sea-level rise and southward retreat of the coastline. Although the core contains marine fossils back to 8900 cal yr B.P., abundant plant debris in a sandy facies low in the core shows that a river influenced the study site until 8100 cal yr B.P. As sea level rose and the distance to the coast increased, this riverine influence diminished gradually and the sediment type changed, by 7400 cal yr B.P., from sandy silt to clayey silt. Although total sediment input decreased in a step-like fashion from 7600 to 4000 cal yr B.P., this interval had the highest average sedimentation rates and the greatest fluxes in most sedimentary components. While this maximum probably resulted from middle Holocene climate warming, the low input of sand to the site after 7400 cal yr B.P. probably resulted from further southward retreat of the coastline and river mouth. Since about 4000 cal yr B.P., total sediment flux has remained rather constant in this part of the Laptev Sea shelf due to a gradual stabilization of the depositional regime after completion of the Holocene sea-level rise.     

Changes in the deposition of terrestrial organic matter on the Laptev Sea shelf during the Holocene: evidence from stable carbon isotopes

Stable carbon isotope ratios in the organic fraction of surface sediments from the Laptev Sea shelf were analyzed in order to study the modern distribution pattern of terrestrial organic matter. The '¹³C_org signature of the surface sediments range from -26.6‰ near the coastal margin to -22.8‰ in the north towards the outer shelf. Characterizing the possible sources of organic matter by their '¹³C_org signature reveals that the terrestrial influence reaches further north in the eastern than in the western Laptev Sea. Downcore records of the '¹³C_org, measured on three AMS ¹⁴C-dated cores from water depths between 46 and 77 m, specify the spatial and temporal changes in the deposition of terrestrial organic matter on the Laptev Sea shelf during the past 12.7 ka. The major depositional changes of terrestrial organic matter occurred between 11 and 7 ka and comprised the main phase of the southward retreat of the coastline and of the river depocenters due to the postglacial sea level rise.