ALBERT

Beschreibung: We report relative paleointensity proxy records from four piston cores collected near the Agulhas Ridge and Meteor Rise (South Atlantic). The mean sedimentation rate of the cores varies from 24 cm/kyr to 11 cm/kyr. The two cores with mean sedimentation rates over 20 cm/kyr record positive remanence inclinations at 40-41 ka coeval with the Laschamp Event. Age models are based on oxygen isotope data from three of the cores, augmented by radiocarbon ages from nearby Core RC11-83, and by correlation of paleointensity records for the one core with no oxygen isotope data. The relative paleointensity proxy records are the first from the South Atlantic and from the high to mid-latitude southern hemisphere. Prominent paleointensity lows at ?40 ka and ?65 ka, as well as many other features, can be correlated to paleointensity records of comparable resolution from the northern hemisphere. The records are attributable, in large part, to the global-scale field, and therefore have potential for inter-hemispheric correlation at a resolution difficult to achieve with isotope data alone.

Beschreibung: We report geomagnetic directional paleosecular variation, relative paleointensity proxies and oxygen isotope data from the upper 88 m composite depth (mcd) at South Atlantic Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1089 (40°56.2?S, 9°53.64?E, 4620 m water depth). The age model is provided by high-resolution oxygen isotope stratigraphy, augmented by radiocarbon dates from the upper 8 mcd of nearby piston core RC11-83. Mean sedimentation rates at Site 1089 are in the range of 15 to 20 cm/kyr. Two intervals during the Brunhes Chron, at ?29.6 mcd (?190 ka) and at ?48 mcd (?335 ka), have component magnetization directions with positive (reverse polarity) inclination; however, the excursional directions are heavily overprinted by the postexcursional field. Magnetite is the dominant carrier of magnetic remanence, and occurs in the pseudosingle-domain (PSD) grain size. An additional higher-coercivity magnetic carrier, characterized by low unblocking temperatures (〈350°C), is assumed to be authigenic pyrrhotite. A decrease in magnetization intensity down core is mirrored by a reduction in pore water sulfate, indicating diagenetic reduction of magnetite. Despite down-core changes in magnetic mineralogy, normalized intensity records from Site 1089 are comparable with high-resolution paleointensity records from the North Atlantic (e.g., ODP Sites 983 and 984). Sediment properties and sedimentation patterns within the Cape (Site 1089) and Iceland (Sites 983 and 984) Basins are distinctly different at both millennial and orbital timescales and therefore preclude lithologic variability from being the source of this correlation. Variations in normalized intensity from Site 1089 therefore appear to reflect changes in global-scale geomagnetic field intensity.

Beschreibung: The Shales-with-'Beef' and Black Ven Marls of the Charmouth Mudstone Formation (Sinemurian) exposed on the Dorset Coast in southern England (Wessex Basin) show stratigraphic variation in carbonate, organic carbon and organic-carbon isotopes. Little environmental significance is attached to the variation of carbonate except in the case of the tabular and nodular limestones interrupting the sequence that probably record stratigraphic condensation and/or sedimentary stillstands that, in an extreme case, were accompanied by sea-floor erosion to produce the bored and encrusted 'Coinstone'. Relatively high total organiccarbon (TOC) contents are present in the laminated mudstones of the lower turneri Zone (upper brooki and lower birch Subzones) and the obtusum Zone (obtusum and stellare Subzones). Basin stratification related to fresh-water influx was the most likely aid to deoxygenation and enhanced preservation of organic matter. The organic-carbon isotope curve (d13Corg), which shows positive excursions in the upper turneri Zone (upper birchi Subzone) and highest obtusum - raricostatum Zones (highest stellare Subzone, densinodulum and lower raricostatoides Subzones), does not correlate with the TOC stratigraphy and was clearly not controlled by local patterns of organic-matter burial. Long-term (hundreds-of-thousands of years) variations in the carbon-isotope (d13Corg) curve are interpreted as reflecting changing seawater isotopic composition and, in the case of the stratigraphically higher interval, may be related to marine organic-carbon burial on the margins of the proto-Atlantic, as exemplified by the Lusitanian Basin in Portugal. Correlation of the carbon-isotope profile with putative sea-level curves is problematic in detail, although significant local transgressive pulses in the turneri and late raricostatum Zones are approximately coincident with positive d13Corg excursions.

Beschreibung: Oxygen isotope data from planktonic and benthic foraminifera, on a high-resolution age model (44 14C dates spanning 17,400 years), document deglacial environmental change on the southeast Alaska margin (59°33.32'N, 144°9.21'W, 682 m water depth). Surface freshening (i.e., d18O reduction of 0.8 per mil) began at 16,650 ± 170 cal years B.P. during an interval of ice proximal sedimentation, likely due to freshwater input from melting glaciers. A sharp transition to laminated hemipelagic sediments constrains retreat of regional outlet glaciers onto land circa 14,790 ± 380 cal years B.P. Abrupt warming and/or freshening of the surface ocean (i.e., additional d18O reduction of 0.9 per mil) coincides with the Bølling Interstade of northern Europe and Greenland. Cooling and/or higher salinities returned during the Allerød interval, coincident with the Antarctic Cold Reversal, and continue until 11,740 ± 200 cal years B.P., when onset of warming coincides with the end of the Younger Dryas. An abrupt 1 per mil reduction in benthic d18O at 14,250 ± 290 cal years B.P. likely reflects a decrease in bottom water salinity driven by deep mixing of glacial meltwater, a regional megaflood event, or brine formation associated with sea ice. Two laminated opal-rich intervals record discrete episodes of high productivity during the last deglaciation. These events, precisely dated here at 14,790 ± 380 to 12,990 ± 190 cal years B.P. and 11,160 ± 130 to 10,750 ± 220 cal years B.P., likely correlate to similar features observed elsewhere on the margins of the North Pacific and are coeval with episodes of rapid sea level rise. Remobilization of iron from newly inundated continental shelves may have helped to fuel these episodes of elevated primary productivity and sedimentary anoxia.