ALBERT

Description: Okhotsk Sea connects the high latitude Asian continent and North Pacific which plays an important role in modern and long-term glacial–interglacial climate changes linked to subarctic terrestrial and marine systems. On the basis of the marine sediment core MD01-2414 (53°11.77′N, 149°34.80′E, water depth: 1,123 m) taken in the central Okhotsk Sea, we here improve the pre-existing magnetostratigraphy by proposing a new age model, and reconstruct both the terrigenous transport and paleoceanographic variations during the past 1550 thousand years ago (ka). Seventeen geomagnetic excursions are identified from the paleomagnetic directional record. Close to the bottom of the core, an excursion was observed, which is proposed to be the Gilsa event at ~1550 ka. During glacial periods, our records reveal a wide extension of sea ice coverage and low marine productivity. We observed ice-rafted debris from mountain icebergs composed of coarse and high magnetic terrigenous detritus which were transported from the Kamchatka Peninsula to the central Okhotsk basin. Still during glacial periods, the initiation (i.e., at ~900 ka) of the Mid-Pleistocene Transition marks the change to even lower marine productivity, suggesting that sea-ice coverage became larger after this event. During interglacial periods, the sea-ice was either inexistent or at best seasonal in the central Okhotsk Sea; resulting in high marine productivity. The weaker formation of Okhotsk Sea Intermediate Water, lower ventilation, and microbial degradation of organic matter depleted the oxygen concentration in the bottom water and created a reduced environment condition in the sea basin. The freshwater supplied by snow or glacier melting from Siberia and Kamchatka delivered fine grain sediments to Okhotsk Sea. During the super-interglacial periods after the Mid-Brunhes Transition (i.e., Marine Isotope Stages 1, 5e, 9, and 11), strong freshwater discharged from Amur River drainage area associated with active East Asian Summer Monsoon, this phenomenon enhanced the input of fine-grained terrigenous detritus to the central Okhotsk Sea.