Mineralogy and geochemistry of glaciomarine sediment cores from the Eastern Arctic Ocean during the last 200 ka

Abstract

The mineralogy and chemistry of two glacimarine sediment cores recovered from the Eastern Arctic Ocean during the Arctic Expedition ARK-XX/3 of R/V ‘Polarstern’ in 2004 were analyzed in this study. Core PS66/321-4SL was recovered from the deep-sea floor east of Yermark Plateau (ca. -2,359 m), whereas core PS66/325-3SL from the northern continental margin of the Barents Sea (ca. -896 m). The core sites underlie the Svalbard branch of the West Spitsbergen Current which is transporting relatively warm Atlantic waters into the eastern Arctic Ocean. The main objectives of this study is to show whether mineralogical variations reflect the paleoenvironmental changes or not, and to find the significant elements for further analyses by XRF core scanner. The bulk mineralogical compositions by XRD were used to correlate with other proxies including chemical compositions. Organic-geochemical proxy data, sulfur, biogenic opal, and sand contents were also compared with the mineralogical and chemical compositions.