This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Fabrés, J. Articles by Flores, J. A. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Bransfield Basin fine-grained sediments: late-Holocene sedimentary processes and Antarctic oceanographic conditions

A. Calafat

M. Canals

G.R.C. Geocie`ncies Marines, Departament d’Estratigrafia i Paleontologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Campus Universitari de Pebralbes, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain

M. A. Bárcena

J. A. Flores

Departamento de Geología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Salamanca, E-37008 Salamanca, Spain

The Antarctic Peninsula is sensitive to climatic change due to its northerly position and to the relatively reduced volume and character of its ice cover. High-resolution palaeoclimatic records from the Ant arctic Peninsula ice cores extend back only 500 years. A climatic record of 2850 years in the Bransfield Basin is investigated through the analysis of sediment gravity cores from the floor of the central subbasin (core GEBRA-1) and the slope of the eastern subbasin (core GEBRA-2). Sedimentological, mineralogical and geo chemical properties have been systematically measured, together with Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating. The fine-grained sediments result from two main processes: hemipelagic settling from resuspensions and primary productivity, and turbidity currents. Hemipelagic sediments were selected to investi gate the oceanographic and climatic conditions of the northern Antarctic Peninsula region during the last three millennia. Cold climatic periods are characterized by millimetric laminations and/or black layers with higher organic carbon, nitrogen and opal contents. Warm periods are recorded as massive to diffuse laminated facies with lower biogenic contents. The results include the ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA) cold pulse as well as several 200– 300 year long fluctuations within the LIA and before this major climatic event of the Holocene.

Key Words: Bransfield Basin • late Holocene • marine sedimentology • geochemistry • palaeoceanography • palaeoclimatology • Antarctic

The Holocene, Vol. 10, No. 6, 703-718 (2000)
DOI: 10.1191/09596830094953


CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Montes-Hugo, S. C. Doney, H. W. Ducklow, W. Fraser, D. Martinson, S. E. Stammerjohn, and O. Schofield Recent Changes in Phytoplankton Communities Associated with Rapid Regional Climate Change Along the Western Antarctic Peninsula Science, March 13, 2009; 323(5920): 1470 - 1473. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. E. Noon, P. E. Noon, M. J. Leng, and V. J. Jones Oxygen-isotope ({delta}18O) evidence of Holocene hydrological changes at Signy Island, maritime Antarctica The Holocene, February 1, 2003; 13(2): 251 - 263. [Abstract] [PDF]