ALBERT

Description: Five Ocean Drilling Program sites (657-661), which form a north-south transect off the western periphery of the Sahara, were selected. Nearshore mean flux of opal off Cap Blanc (21°N) showed an abrupt increase about 3 Ma that appears to reflect the main onset of coastal upwelling fertility and enhanced trade winds. At the same time, the input of river-borne clay strongly decreased, suggesting a dry up of the central Saharan rivers. Later, marked short-lived spikes of clay and opal may indicate ongoing ephemeral pulses of fluvial runoff linked to peak interglacial stages. Aridification of the south Sahara and Sahel increased in several steps: at 4.6, 4.3 and especially at 4.0, 3.6 and 2.1 Ma, and again, at 0.8 Ma. The late Miocene and earliest Pliocene were humid. Central and north Sahara climate appears to be linked to the glaciation history of the Northern Hemisphere. Spatial distribution of quartz accumulation suggests that the dust outbreaks linked to the Intertropical Convergence Zone during summer did not shift in latitude back to 4.0 Ma, at least. Short-term variations of dust output over the last 0.5 my followed orbital scale pulses with a strong precessional signal, showing a link of Sahelian humidity changes to the variation of sea-surface temperature and evaporation in the tropical Atlantic.

Description: Russian and German scientists have investigated the extreme environmental system in and around the Laptev Sea in the Siberian Arctic. For the first time a major comprehensive research program combining the efforts of several projects addressed both oceanic and terrestrial processes, and their consequences for marine and terrestrial biota, landscape evolution as well as land-ocean interactions. The primary scientific goal of the multidisciplinary program was to decipher past climate variations and their impact on contemporary environmental changes. Extensive studies of the atmosphere, sea ice, water column, and sea-floor on the Laptev Sea Shelf, as well as of the vegetation, soil development, carbon cycle, permafrost behaviour and lake hydrology, and sedimentationon Taymyr Peninsula and Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago were performed during the past years under a framework of joint research activities. They included land and marine expeditions during spring (melting), summer (ice free), and autumn (freezing) seasons. The close bilateral cooperation between many institutions in Russia and Germany succeeded in drawing a picture of important processes shaping the marine and terrestrial environment in northern Central Siberia in Late Quaternary time. The success of the projects, which ended in late 1997, resulted in the definition and establishment of a new major research effort which will concentrate on establishing a better understanding of the paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental record of the area. This is important because it allows to be able to judge rates and extremes of potential future environmental changes.

Description: [1] On the basis of the detailed sedimentological record of the key-core PS66/309-1 and a review of open literature, we present an assessment of the paleoenvironmental conditions as well as trigger mechanism of the Hinlopen/Yermak Megaslide north of Spitsbergen. The Svalbard archipelago is characterized by strong inflow of Atlantic water accompanied by rapidly falling sea level, rapidly growing Svalbard-Barents Sea-Ice Sheet, and associated increasing glaciotectonic activity during the time window around 30 calendar kyr B. P. of this catastrophic failure event. Thus the potential trigger mechanisms include sediment buoyancy and excess pore pressure, hydrate stability, and tectonic/glaciotectonic processes. While the common scenarios seem to fail to explain this unique submarine megaslide, we focus on glacial processes and their consequences for the regional tectonic framework. We conclude that the Hinlopen/Yermak Megaslide has been the consequence of the rapid onset of Late Weichselian glaciation resulting in a drastic sea level drop, asymmetrical ice loading, and a forebulge development leading to enhanced tectonic movements along the Hinlopen fault zone. As the final trigger we assume a strong earthquake positioned below or close to the SE Sophia Basin.

Description: EGU2011-407 The spatial and temporal distribution of sea ice in the subpolar North Atlantic is mainly controlled by the advection of warm Atlantic Water via the Norwegian and West Spitsbergen Current in eastern Fram Strait. Simultaneously, polar water and sea ice from the Arctic Ocean is transported southward by the East Greenland Current. Hence, variations in the strength of this oceanic circulation regime may either stimulate or reduce the sea ice extent. Based on organic geochemical studies of a high-resolution sediment core from eastern Fram Strait we provide new evidence for the highly variable character of the sea ice conditions in this area. The combination of the sea ice proxy IP25 (Belt et al., 2007) with phytoplankton derived biomarkers (e.g. brassicasterol, dinosterol; Volkman 2006) enables a reliable reconstruction of sea surface and sea ice conditions, respectively (Müller et al., 2009; 2010). By means of these biomarkers, we trace gradually increasing sea ice occurrences from the Mid to the Late Holocene – consistent with the neoglacial cooling trend. Throughout the past ca. 3,000 years (BP) we observe a significant short-term variability in the biomarker records, which points to rapid advances and retreats of the sea ice cover at the continental margin of West Spitsbergen. The co-occurrence of IP25 and phytoplankton markers, however, suggests that the primary productivity benefits from these sea ice surges. As such, higher amounts of open-water phytoplankton biomarkers together with peak abundances of IP25 indicate recurring periods of enhanced ice-edge phytoplankton blooms at the core site. To what extent a seesawing of temperate Atlantic Water may account for these sea ice fluctuations requires further investigation. Concurrent variations in Siberian river discharge (Stein et al., 2004) or Norwegian glacier extents (Nesje et al., 2001), however, strengthen that these fluctuations may be assigned to variations in the North Atlantic/Arctic Oscillation (NAO/AO) and (hence) a weakened/accelerated Atlantic Water input and Arctic sea ice export.

Description: In this paper, we summarize data on terrigenous sediment supply in the Kara Sea and its accumulation and spatial and temporal variability during Holocene times. Sedimentological, organic-geochemical, and micropaleontological proxies determined in surface sediments allow to characterize the modern (riverine) terrigenous sediment input. AMS-14C dated sediment cores from the Ob and Yenisei estuaries and the adjacent inner Kara Sea were investigated to determine the terrigenous sediment fluxes and their relationship to paleoenvironmental changes. The variability of sediment fluxes during Holocene times is related to the post-glacial sea-level rise and changes in river discharge and coastal erosion input. Whereas during the late/middle Holocene most of the terrigenous sediments were deposited in the estuaries and the areas directly off the estuaries, huge amounts of sediments accumulated on the Kara Sea shelf farther north during the early Holocene before about 9 Cal. kyr BP. The maximum accumulation at that time is related to the lowered sea level, increased coastal erosion, and increased river discharge. Based on sediment thickness charts, echograph profiles and sediment core data, we estimate an average Holocene (0–11 Cal. kyr BP) annual accumulation of 194×106 t yr−1 of total sediment for the whole Kara Sea. Based on late Holocene (modern) sediment accumulation in the estuaries, probably 12×106 t yr−1 of riverine suspended matter (i.e., about 30% of the input) may escape the marginal filter on a geological time scale and is transported onto the open Kara Sea shelf. The high-resolution magnetic susceptibility record of a Yenisei core suggests a short-term variability in Siberian climate and river discharge on a frequency of 300–700 yr. This variability may reflect natural cyclic climate variations to be seen in context with the interannual and interdecadal environmental changes recorded in the High Northern Latitudes over the last decades, such as the NAO/AO pattern. A major decrease in MS values starting near 2.5 Cal. kyr BP, being more pronounced during the last about 2 Cal. kyr BP, correlates with a cooling trend over Greenland as indicated in the GISP-2 Ice Core, extended sea-ice cover in the North Atlantic, and advances of glaciers in western Norway. Our still preliminary interpretation of the MS variability has to be proven by further MS records from additional cores as well as other high-resolution multi-proxy Arctic climate records.

Description: Eocene to Holocene sediments from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 647 (Leg 105) in the southern Labrador Sea, approximately 200 km south of the Gloria Drift deposits, were investigated for their biogenic silica composition. Three sections of different diagenetic alteration products of primary siliceous components could be distinguished: (1) opal-A was recorded in the Miocene and the early Oligocene time intervals with strongly corroded siliceous skeletons in the Miocene and mostly well preserved biogenic opal in the early Oligocene; (2) opal-CT precipitation occurs between 250-440 meters below seafloor (mbsf) (earliest Oligocene to late Eocene); (3) between 620-650 mbsf (early/middle Eocene), biogenic opal was transformed to clay minerals by authigenesis of smectites. Using accumulation rates of biogenic opal, paleoproductivity was estimated for the early Oligocene to late Eocene interval. A maximum productivity of biogenic silica probably occurred between 35.5 and 34.5 Ma (early Oligocene). No evidence for opal sedimentation during most of middle Eocene was found. However, at the early/middle Eocene boundary (around 52 Ma), increased opal fluxes were documented by diagenetic alteration products of siliceous skeletons.