Late quaternary sedimentation in the Eastern Angola Basin

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution August, 1973Recent sedimentation in the eastern Angola Basin includes calcareous oozes in the north and south (Guinea Rise and Walvis Ridge) and hemipelagic lutites and terrigenous turbidites on the Congo Cone and on the Angola rise and abyssal plain. Slumped and ponded sediments are dominant within the Angola diapir field. Illite and montmorillonite are abundant in the southern part of the basin, reflecting the source in soils of South West Africa and northward transport in the Benguela Current system. Kaolinite dominates the clay-mineral assemblage in the north-central part of the basin, reflecting a source in the tropical-humid Congo Basin and transport to the deep-sea through the Congo River and canyon systems. Piston cores from the continental rise revealed major fluctuations in the surface oceanographic conditions, primary productivity, and near-bottom depositional environment during the late Quaternary. Sediments deposited during glacial intervals contain markedly lower carbonate, higher levels of organic carbon, and more abundant siliceous biogenic components, fecal pellets, and pyrite. Sedimentation rates during the past 200-300 x 103 years remained relatively constant on the rise, averaging 3-5 cm/103 years. Oceanographic changes from interglacial to glacial periods, based on sediment composition and geochemistry, include: (1) northward extension and intensification of the Benguela Current and associated high primary productivity off southern Angola; (2) onset of upwelling and high surface productivity off northern Angola, Congo, and Gabon; and (3) major influx of bottom water into the Angola and Guinea Basins. These conditions resulted in higher benthic productivity, a shallower lysocline, and a more reducing near-bottom environment, as bottom water in the Angola Basin, produced during glacial maxima, became isolated. This "climax" bottom water was eventually mixed with the overlying water by geothermal heating.Prepared under Office of Naval Research Contract N00014-67-A-010B-0004 and National Science Foundation Grants GA-29460 and GA-35454 from the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory

Water Mass Conversion in the Glacial Subarctic Pacific (54°N, 148°W): Physical Constraints and the Benthic-Planktonic Stable Isotope Record

Benthic (Uvigerina spp., Cibicidoides spp., Gyroidinoides spp.) and planktonic (N. pachyderma sinistral, G. bulloides) stable isotope records from three core sites in the central Gulf of Alaska are used to infer mixed-layer and deepwater properties of the late glacial Subarctic Pacific. Glacial-interglacial amplitudes of the planktonic δ18O records are 1.1–1.3‰, less than half the amplitude observed at core sites at similar latitudes in the North Atlantic; these data imply that a strong, negative δw anomaly existed in the glacial Subarctic mixed layer during the summer, which points to a much stronger low-salinity anomaly than exists today. If true, the upper water column in the North Pacific would have been statically more stable than today, thus suppressing convection even more efficiently. This scenario is further supported by vertical (i.e., planktic versus benthic) δ18O and δ13C gradients of >1‰, which suggest that a thermohaline link between Pacific deep waters and the Subarctic Pacific mixed layer did not exist during the late glacial. Epibenthic δ13C in the Subarctic Pacific is more negative than at tropical-subtropical Pacific sites but similar to that recorded at Southern Ocean sites, suggesting ventilation of the deep central Pacific from mid-latitude sources, e.g., from the Sea of Japan and Sea of Okhotsk. Still, convection to intermediate depths could have occurred in the Subarctic during the winter months when heat loss to the atmosphere, sea ice formation, and wind-driven upwelling of saline deep waters would have been most intense. This would be beyond the grasp of our planktonic records which only document mixed-layer temperature-salinity fields extant during the warmer seasons. Also we do not have benthic isotope records from true intermediate water depths of the Subarctic Pacific

Carbonate deposition and benthicδ13C in the subarctic Pacific: implications for changes of the oceanic carbonate system during the past 750,000 years

Carbonate deposition at two core sites in the subarctic Pacific (48°N, 133°W; 2.9 km and 3.7 km water depth) follows the standard Pacific carbonate cycles, with glacial values being increased over interglacial values. Benthicδ13C follows the global trend; that is, glacial values are more negative than interglacial values. Comparison with the benthicδ13C record of North Atlantic DSDP Site 552 (56°N, 23°W; 2.3 km water depth) shows the North Pacific records to be nearly in phase with and continuously more negative relative to the North Atlantic record. This suggests that concentrations of∑CO2(org) were permanently higher in the North Pacific than in the North Atlantic during the past 750,000 years conceivably supporting the hypothesis that there was no deep-water forming in the late Pleistocene North Pacific. Whereas one would expect that the North Pacific deep waters were continuously more corrosive to carbonates than deep waters in the North Atlantic, carbonate deposition at the deep North Pacific core sites is enhanced during glacial periods, and occasionally higher than at shallow North Atlantic Site 552 even though Site 552 was probably above lysocline-depth during most of the late Pleistocene. This apparent paradox can be resolved only by invoking an increase in alkalinity in the glacial North Pacific which would have increased the degree of carbonate ion saturation and thereby improved the state of carbonate preservation

(Table 1) Composition of ice-rafted debris and quartz grain concentration at DSDP Sites 71-513 and 71-514

The surficial few meters of sediment at Sites 511 and 512 on Maurice Ewing Bank consist of a lag deposit of icerafted sands and gravels ranging from lower Pliocene to Quaternary in age. The sediments contain up to 62% angular to subangular gravel of mixed lithology. Significant volumes of sand- and gravel-sized ice-rafted detritus (IRD) first reached the Falkland (Malvinas) Plateau and southeasternmost Argentine Basin in the late Miocene (6.9 Ma) in response to the rapid buildup and grounding of the ice sheet in West Antarctica. IRD accumulation rates remained relatively low until 4.15 Ma, after which they increased markedly. Peaks of IRD accumulation at Sites 513 and 514 can, in most instances, be correlated directly with colder climates in Antarctica and southern Patagonia

(Table 1) Textural characteristics of sediments at DSDP Leg 71 Holes

In conjunction with a study of ice-rafted detritus (IRD), textural analyses were carried out on Miocene to Quaternary sediments at Sites 511, 512, 513, and 514. Grain-size statistics were computed for the 250 µm fractions were determined

Temperate skeletal carbonate sediments on Scott shelf, northwestren Vancouver Island, Canada

Scott shelf ( 2000 km2), centred at Scott Islands, northwestern Vancouver Island, is mainly shallower than 150 m, topographically diversified, and floored by bedrock outcrops and terrigenous lithic gravels and sands left stranded following the post-glacial rise in sea level (13,000 yrs B.P.). It lies in a zone of vigorous wind-wave currents and strong tidal flows, but is largely starved of modern terrigenous sediment. As a consequence it is slowly accumulating a thin, discontinuous blanket of clean, skeletal carbonate sands and gravels, admixed to varying degrees with the underlying terrigenous deposits. Principal skeletal contributors are infaunal bivalves (on coarse sandy and gravelly substrates), barnacles (on low-amplitude gravelly ridges), bryozoans (on bedrock outcrops and boulders) and benthic foraminifera (on fine sands in deep (> 100 m) waters south of the Scott Islands). Living carbonate benthos are scattered and generally sparse, occupying specific ecologic niches, and the shelf-wide rate of carbonate production is low. Skeletons are fragmented, transported and mixed during storms and are concentrated within bedrock hollows and crevices, and shallow depressions between gravel ridges. Where infaunal bivalves are abundant the carbonates are dominated by aragonite, but otherwise the skeletal hashes are predominantly calcitic. Many grains, and especially aragonitic ones, are corroded and weakened by epilithic and endolithic bioerosion, and probably also by marine and dissolution. The most corroded shells have ages of only about 1000 yrs so that their preservation potential is low. The character of Scott shelf skeletal carbonate deposits reflects their temperate latitude, cold-water heritage