ALBERT

Description: The Owen Ridge south of Oman represents oceanic crust that was uplifted by compressional tectonic forces in the early Miocene. Build-out of the Indus Fan led to deposition of a thick sequence of turbidites over the site of the Ridge during the late Oligocene and early Miocene. Early Miocene uplift of the Ridge led to a pelagic cap of nannofossil chalks. Two short sequences of turbidites from the pre- and syn-uplift phases were chosen for detailed grain size analysis. The upper Oligocene section at Site 731 is composed of thin (centimeter-decimeter scale) graded mud turbidites separated by relatively thick (decimeter-meter scale) intervals of homogeneous, non-bioturbated clayey siltstones. These finer intervals are unusually silt-rich (about 60%) for ungraded material and were probably deposited as undifferentiated muds from a series of turbidity current tails. By contrast, the lower Miocene section at Site 722 is comprised of a sequence of interbedded turbidites and hemipelagic carbonates. Sharp-based silt turbidites are overlain by burrow-mottled marly nannofossil chalks. The Oligocene sequence may have accumulated in an overbank setting on the middle fan - the local topographic position favoring frequent deposition from turbidity current tails and occasional deposition from the body of a turbidity flow. Uplift of the Ridge in the early Miocene led to pelagic carbonate deposition interrupted only by turbidity currents capable of overcoming a topographic barrier. Further uplift eventually led to entirely pelagic carbonate deposition.

Description: Radiocarbon ages on CaCO3 from deep-sea cores offer constraints on the nature of the CaCO3 dissolution process. The idea is that the toll taken by dissolution on grains within the core top bioturbation zone should be in proportion to their time of residence in this zone. If so, dissolution would shift the mass distribution in favor of younger grains, thereby reducing the mean radiocarbon age for the grain ensemble. We have searched in vain for evidence supporting the existence of such an age reduction. Instead, we find that for water depths of more than 4 km in the tropical Pacific the radiocarbon age increases with the extent of dissolution. We can find no satisfactory steady state explanation and are forced to conclude that this increase must be the result of chemical erosion. The idea is that during the Holocene the rate of dissolution of CaCO3 has exceeded the rain rate of CaCO3. In this circumstance, bioturbation exhumes CaCO3 from the underlying glacial sediment and mixes it with CaCO3 raining from the sea surface.

Description: High-resolution records of the concentration and mass accumulation rate (MAR, or flux) of biogenic sediments from core RC11-210 in the central equatorial Pacific are compared for the entire late Pleistocene. The fluxes of calcium carbonate and organic carbon correlate well. The opal flux pattern shows no direct correlation with the other two; rather, opal flux maxima correlate with slopes of (i.e. both precede and follow) the organic carbon and carbonate MAR peaks. Organic carbon and calcite therefore may both be better indicators of past productivity than opal, which is an indicator of transition at this location. We interpret the sequence low biogenic fluxes, high opal fluxes, high carbonate, carbon, and opal fluxes as representing the transition from low to high sea surface biological productivity. The phase relationships for eccentricity of the biogenic sedimentation records were compared to those of other climatic indications including the oxygen isotope record of ice volume, the ice core CO2 record, the Pacific delta13C record, the deep nutrient (Cd/Ca) record, and the eolian grain-size record of wind intensity. We find that starting from maximum ice volume (phase angle of 0°) the phase relationships of the 100,000-year periodicity show, in the first quadrant, maximum wind intensity (30°) and maximum calcite and carbon flux (45°) occurring first, followed by maximum opal flux (75°) and then maximum deep nutrients (95°). Minimum Pacific delta13C occurs at a phase angle of 155°, the maximum CO2 in the Vostok record and minimum ice volume is at 180°. Thus, in the eccentricity climate cycle, glacial conditions lead to stronger wind-driven circulation which enhances productivity which in turn results in enhanced oceanic and atmospheric carbon dioxide and minimum ice volume.

Description: In two cores with oxygen isotope stratigraphy from the southern Okhotsk Sea, marine pollen and siliceous microfauna record concurrent late glacial through Holocene variations in regional terrestrial and marine environments. Glacial vegetation around the southern Okhotsk basin, which resembles the present tundra/steppe of the northwest coast of this marginal sea, yields to spruce-dominated boreal forests during the glacial/interglacial transition. Temperate forest components, such as oak, peak during the mid-Holocene. Decreasing oak accompanied by increasing spruce reflects the effect of global cooling on local vegetation during the last 4 kyr. Although the radiolarian fauna in the Okhotsk Sea samples is similar to that present in the northwest Pacific, the dominant species in both regions differ. Concentrations of radiolarians are low in latest glacial samples, with higher concentrations occurring above and below this interval. Cycladophora davisiana, the dominant radiolarian species in the majority of Holocene Okhotsk Sea sediments, is present at lower percentages in late glacial samples from our two sites. Thus, this species' Holocene/latest Pleistocene abundance pattern in Sea of Okhotsk sediments is the reverse of that recorded in high-latitude open ocean sites. The combined marine pollen and radiolarian records indicate changes in the Sea of Okhotsk's physical oceanographic conditions and surrounding vegetation during the late glacial which were associated with this region's response to global climate change.

Description: We present records of biogenic opal percentage and burial rate in 12 piston cores from the Atlantic and Indian sectors of the Southern Ocean. These records provide a detailed, quantitative description of changing patterns of opal deposition over the last 450 kyr. The striking regional coherence of these records suggests that dissolution in the deep sea and sediment pore waters does not obscure the surface productivity signal, and therefore these opal time series can be used in combination with other surface water tracers to make inferences about the chemistry and circulation of the Southern Ocean under different global climate conditions. Three broad depositional patterns can be distinguished. Northernmost records (39°-42°S latitude) are characterized by enhanced opal burial during glacial periods and strong 41 kyr periodicity. Records from cores just north of the present Antarctic Polar Front (46°-49°S) show even larger increases in opal burial rate during glacial intervals, but have variance concentrated in the 100 and 23 kyr bands. Southernmost records (51°-55°S) are completely out of phase with those to the north, with greatly reduced opal burial rates during glacial periods. Taken as a whole, the opal records show no evidence for the increased total Antarctic productivity predicted by recent geochemical models of atmospheric CO2 variability. The areal expansion of Southern Ocean sea ice over the present zone of high siliceous productivity provides one plausible explanation for the glacial-interglacial opal patterns. The excess silica not taken up in this zone during glacial periods would contribute to greater nutrient availability and thus higher productivity in the subantarctic region. However, local circulation changes may act to modify this basic signal, possibly accounting for the observed differences in the opal variance spectra.

Description: The Pliocene-Pleistocene history of CaCO3 preservation in the central equatorial Pacific is reconstructed from a suite of deep-sea cores and is compared to fluctuations in global ice volume inferred from delta18O records. The results are highlighted by: (1) a strong covariation between CaCO3 preservation and ice volume over 104 to 106 year time scales; (2) a long-term increase in ice volume and CaCO3 preservation since 3.9 Ma demonstrated by a deepening of the lysocline and the carbonate critical depth; (3) a dramatic shift to greater CaCO3 preservation at 2.9 Ma; (4) distinctive ice-volume growth and CaCO3 preservation events at 2.4 Ma, which are associated with the significant intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation; (5) a mid-Pleistocene transition to 100-kyr cyclicity in both CaCO3 preservation and ice volume; and (6) a 600-kyr Brunhes dissolution cycle superimposed on the late Pleistocene glacial/interglacial 100-kyr cycles. CaCO3 preservation primarily reflects the carbonate chemistry of abyssal waters and is controlled by long-term (106 year) and short-term (104 to 105 year) biogeochemical cycling and by distinct paleoclimatic events. We attribute the long-term increase in CaCO3 preservation primarily to a fractionation of CaCO3 deposition from continental shelf to ocean basin, and secondarily to a gradual rise in the riverine and glaciofluvial flux of Ca++. On shorter time scales, the fluctuations in CaCO3 preservation slightly lag ice volume fluctuations and are attributed to climatically induced changes in the circulation and chemistry of Pacific deep water.