ALBERT

Description: Deposits of coral-bearing, marine shell conglomerate exposed at elevations higher than 20 m above present-day mean sea level (MSL) in Bermuda and the Bahamas have previously been interpreted as relict intertidal deposits formed during marine isotope stage (MIS) 11, ca. 360–420 ka before present. On the strength of this evidence, a sea level highstand more than 20 m higher than present-day MSL was inferred for the MIS 11 interglacial, despite a lack of clear supporting evidence in the oxygen-isotope records of deep-sea sediment cores. We have critically re-examined the elevated marine deposits in Bermuda, and find their geological setting, sedimentary relations, and microfaunal assemblages to be inconsistent with intertidal deposition over an extended period. Rather, these deposits, which comprise a poorly sorted mixture of reef, lagoon and shoreline sediments, appear to have been carried tens of meters inside karst caves, presumably by large waves, at some time earlier than ca. 310–360 ka before present (MIS 9–11). We hypothesize that these deposits are the result of a large tsunami during the mid-Pleistocene, in which Bermuda was impacted by a wave set that carried sediments from the surrounding reef platform and nearshore waters over the eolianite atoll. Likely causes for such a megatsunami are the flank collapse of an Atlantic island volcano, such as the roughly synchronous Julan or Orotava submarine landslides in the Canary Islands, or a giant submarine landslide on the Atlantic continental margin.

Description: We investigated the influence of the composition of the vertical particle flux on the removal of particle reactive natural radionuclides (Th-230 and Pa-231) from the water column to the sediments. Radionuclide concentrations determined in sediment traps moored in the western, central and eastern Arabian Sea were related to the major components (carbonate, particulate organic matter (POC), opal, lithogenic material) of the particle flux. These data were combined with sediment trap data previously published from the Southern Ocean, Equatorial Pacific and North Atlantic [Z. Chase, R.F. Anderson, M.Q. Fleisher, P.W. Kubik, The influence of particle composition and particle flux on scavenging of Th, Pa and Be in the ocean, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 204 (2002) 215-229; J.C. Scholten, F. Fietzke, S. Vogler, M. Rutgers van der Loeff, A. Mangini, W Koeve, J. Waniek. P. Stoffers, A. Antia, J. Kass, Trapping efficiencies of sediment traps from the deep eastern North Atlantic: The Th-230 calibration, Deep Sea Research 1148 (2001) 2383-2408]. The correlations observed between the particle-dissolved distribution coefficients (K-d) of Th-230 and Pa-231 and the concentrations of the particle types depend on the sediment trap data set used. This result suggests that scavenging affinities of the nuclides differ between oceanic regions. Several factors (K-d values, reactive surface areas of particles, inter-correlations in closed data set) can, however, influence the observed relationships and thus hamper the interpretation of these correlation coefficients as a measure of relative scavenging affinities of the nuclides to the particle types investigated. The mean fractionation factor (F(Pa/Th)=K-d(Pa)/(K)d(Th)) from the Equatorial Pacific (F=0.11+/-0.03) is similar to that from the North Atlantic (F(Pa/Th)=0.077+/-0.026), and both are lower than the factors from the Arabian Sea (F(Pa/Th)=0.35+/-0.12) and from the Southern Ocean (F(Pa/Th) 0.87+/-0.4). For opal concentrations exceeding similar to60%, an increase in the fractionation factors is observed causing a higher mean fractionation factor for the Southern Ocean trap data set. For the other areas investigated, differences in the mean fractionation factors cannot be related to the particles types considered. In the Arabian Sea, seasonally variable Pa-231(ex)/Th-230(ex) ratios observed in the sediment traps as well as differences of the ratios between recently deposited phytodetritus (fluff) and normal surface sediments indicate seasonal changes in scavenging processes which the generally accepted reversible scavenging models do not envisage. We assume that variable sinking rates of particles, and/or particles not considered in this study (e.g. colloids, manganese oxides, transparent exopolymer particles) may play an important but as yet unexplored role in deep-water scavenging processes. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.