thorium 230 profiling in deep sea sediments high resolution records of flux and dissolution of carbonate in the equatorial atlantic during the last 24 000 years variations in carbonate flux and dissolution which occurred in the equatorial atlantic during the last 24 000 years have been estimated by a new approach that allows the point by point determination of paleofluxes to the seafloor an unprecedented time resolution can thus be obtained which allows sequencing of the relatively rapid events occurring during deglaciation the method is based on observations that the flux of unsupported 230th into deep sea sediments is nearly independent of the total mass flux and is close to the production rate thus excess 230th activity in sediments can be used as a reference against which fluxes of other sedimentary components can be estimated the study was conducted at two sites ceara rise western equatorial atlantic and sierra leone rise eastern equatorial atlantic in cores raised from three different depths at each site from measurements of 230th and caco3 changes in carbonate flux with time and depth were obtained a rapid increase in carbonate production starting at the onset of deglaciation was found in both areas this event may have important implications for the postglacial increase in atmospheric co2 by increasing the global carbonate carbon to organic carbon rain ratio and decreasing the alkalinity of surface waters and possibly the north atlantic deep water increased carbonate dissolution occurred in the two regions during deglaciation followed by a minimum during mid holocene and renewed intensification of dissolution in late holocene during the last 16 000 years carbonate dissolution was consistently more pronounced in the western than in the eastern basin reflecting the influence of antarctic bottom water in the west this trend was reversed during stage 2 possibly due to the accumulation of metabolic co2 below the level of the romanche fracture zone in the eastern basin

boundary scavenging at the east atlantic margin does not negate use of 231pa 230th to trace atlantic overturning abstract the 231 pa 230 th method is a promising tool to reconstruct ocean circulation over the past glacial interglacial cycle however marine particle flux may constrain the applicability of this ratio as a direct quantitative proxy for the strength of atlantic meridional overturning circulation amoc by influencing the fractionation between the in situ produced 231 pa and 230 th in ocean water here we present 231 pa 230 th down core profiles from high particle flux areas off namibia and senegal covering the past 35 ka the 231 pa 230 th profiles at these sites show very different responses to temporal variations of particle fluxes and to changes in water masses our results show that sedimentary 231 pa 230 th in the eastern atlantic margin is linked to particle flux but controlled primarily by the mode of the amoc our data suggest that during the past 30 ka the high productivity eastern margin was not capable of importing and storing significant amounts of 231 pa from the open ocean consequently the applicability of the 231 pa 230 th proxy to reconstruct past ocean circulation is not hampered by this potentially additional 231 pa sink

deglacial changes in dust flux in the eastern equatorial pacific abstract atmospheric dust levels may play important roles in feedbacks linking continental source areas tropical convection marine productivity and global climate these feedbacks appear to be particularly significant in the tropical pacific where variations in local convection and productivity have been demonstrated to have impacts on climate at higher latitudes modeling of past dust levels and related feedbacks has been limited however by a paucity of observational data in this study we present a temporal and spatial survey of dust fluxes to the eastern equatorial pacific over the past 30 kyr glacial and holocene fluxes of 232th a proxy for continental material were calculated by normalization to 230th from a north south transect of cores along 110 w between 3 s and 7 n odp sites 848 853 fluxes were 30 100 higher during the last glacial suggesting increased dustiness in both hemispheres during the glacial period in both time periods dust fluxes decrease towards the south reflecting scavenging of northern hemisphere dust by precipitation at the itcz the holocene meridional dust flux gradient between 7 n and 3 s is characterized by a steep drop in dust levels at the southern edge of the modern range of the itcz while the gradient is shallower and more nearly linear during the last glacial this change may indicate that the glacial itcz in this region was a less effective barrier to inter hemispheric dust transport most likely due to a decrease in convective intensity and precipitation during the last glacial alternatively the change in gradient may be explained by increased variability in the location of the glacial itcz our data do not appear to require a mean southerly displacement of the glacial itcz as suggested by the results of other studies

measurement of adsorbed and total 232th 230th ratios from marine sediments the predictable in situ production of 230th from the decay of uranium in seawater and its subsequent removal by scavenging onto falling particles provides a valuable tool for normalizing fluxes to the seafloor we describe a new application determination of the 232th that dissolves in the water column and is removed to the seafloor 232th is supplied to the ocean in continental minerals dissolution of which leads to a measurable standing stock in the water column sedimentary adsorbed 232th 230th ratios have the potential to provide a proxy for estimating the amount of dissolved material that enters the ocean both today and in the past ten core top samples were treated with up to eight different leaching techniques in order to determine the best method for the separating adsorbed from lattice bound thorium in addition separate components of the sediments were analyzed to test whether clay dissolution was an important contribution to the final measurement there was no systematic correlation between the strength of acid used in the leach and the measured 232th 230th ratios in all cases clean foraminifera produced the same ratio as leaches on bulk sediment in three out of five samples leaches performed on non carbonate detritus in the 63 mu m size fraction were also identical without additional water column data it is not yet clear whether there is a simple one to one correlation between the expected deep water 232th 230th and that produced by leaching especially in carbonate rich sediments however higher ratios and associated high 232th adsorbed fluxes were observed in areas with high expected detrital inputs the adsorbed fraction was 35 50 of the total 232th in seven out of ten samples our 230th normalized 232th fluxes are reasonable by comparison to global estimates of detrital inputs to the ocean in nine cases out of ten the total 230th normalized 232th flux is greater than predicted from the annual dust fall at each specific location but lower than the average global detrital input from all sources

comparing glacial and holocene opal fluxes in the pacific sector of the southern ocean 1 the silicic acid leakage hypothesis salh predicts that during glacial periods excess silicic acid was transported from the southern ocean to lower latitudes which favored diatom production over coccolithophorid production and caused a drawdown of atmospheric co2 downcore records of 230th normalized opal biogenic silica fluxes from 31 cores in the pacific sector of the southern ocean were used to compare diatom productivity during the last glacial period to that of the holocene and to examine the evidence for increased glacial si export to the tropics average glacial opal fluxes south of the modern antarctic polar front apf were less than during the holocene while average glacial opal fluxes north of the apf were greater than during the holocene however the magnitude of the increase north of the apf was not enough to offset decreased fluxes to the south resulting in a decrease in opal burial in the pacific sector of the southern ocean during the last glacial period equivalent to approximately 15 gt opal ka 1 this is consistent with the work of chase et al 2003a and satisfies the primary requirement of the salh assuming that the upwelled supply of si was approximately equivalent during the holocene and the glacial period however previous results from the equatorial oceans are inconsistent with the other predictions of the salh namely that either the corg caco3 ratio or the rate of opal burial should have increased during glacial periods we compare the magnitudes of changes in the southern ocean and the tropics and suggest that si escaping the glacial southern ocean must have had an alternate destination possibly the continental margins there is currently insufficient data to test this hypothesis but the existence of this sink and its potential impact on glacial pco2 remain interesting topics for future study

millennial scale variations in hydrography and biogeochemistry in the eastern equatorial pacific over the last 100 kyr abstract in this study we use records of nitrogen isotope ratios 15n uk 37 temperature estimates organic carbon and opal percentages from high resolution sediment cores located in the eastern equatorial pacific eep to explore the mechanisms linking millennial scale changes in low latitude sea surface temperature water column denitrification and surface productivity to the timing of northern or southern polar climate during the last 100 000 yr our results support a hypothesis that the southern hemisphere and its connection to the low latitudes via shallow subsurface ocean circulation has a primary influence on the biogeochemistry of the eep in addition our results suggest that during the last glacial stage denitrification rates fluctuated on millennial timescales in response to water column ventilation rather than upstream oxidant demand in intermediate depth waters however due to the poor age constraints available for marine isotopic stage mis 3 the eep sedimentary data presented here could support two conflicting mechanisms one driven by enhanced intermediate overturning circulation in the southern ocean during heinrich events antarctic warm events implying that subsurface flow rates control thermocline ventilation and a second one consistent with more sluggish intermediate circulation during antarctic warm events and giving a central role to the temperature control on oxygen solubility in southern ocean surface waters

constraining oceanic dust deposition using surface ocean dissolved al we use measurements of ocean surface dissolved al a global biogeochemical elemental cycling bec ocean model and the global dust entrainment and deposition dead model to constrain dust deposition to the oceans our al database contains all available measurements with best coverage in the atlantic vertical profiles and seasonal data exist in limited regions observations show that surface dissolved al is distributed similarly to the dust deposition predicted by dead and other models there is an equatorial atlantic al maximum that decreases toward higher latitudes there are high al concentrations in the mediterranean sea and the arabian sea and low concentrations in the pacific and the southern ocean the ocean basins maintain more distinct al profiles than fe profiles in the upper ocean consistent with a weaker biological influence on al than fe the bec predicted surface dissolved al compares relatively well with observations the al distribution reflects the combined effects of al input from dust and al removal by particle scavenging and biological uptake by diatoms model observed biases suggest a southward shift of maximum dust deposition compared to current dust model predictions dead appears to overestimate deposition north of 30 n in the pacific and to underestimate deposition south of 30 n observed al concentrations and the ocean model predicted surface al lifetime provide a semi independent method to estimate oceanic dust deposition this technique indicates that dead may overestimate dust deposition to the north equatorial atlantic but underestimate in other atlantic regions the southern ocean and the arabian sea however spatial variations in aerosol al solubility may also contribute to the model observation mismatch our results have implications for all dust borne ocean nutrients including fe and demonstrate the potential of marine geochemical data to constrain atmospheric aerosol deposition fields

a 580 kyr paleomagnetic record from the sub antarctic south atlantic ocean drilling program site 1089 1 we report geomagnetic directional paleosecular variation relative paleointensity proxies and oxygen isotope data from the upper 88 m composite depth mcd at south atlantic ocean drilling program odp site 1089 40 56 2 s 9 53 64 e 4620 m water depth the age model is provided by high resolution oxygen isotope stratigraphy augmented by radiocarbon dates from the upper 8 mcd of nearby piston core rc11 83 mean sedimentation rates at site 1089 are in the range of 15 to 20 cm kyr two intervals during the brunhes chron at 29 6 mcd 190 ka and at 48 mcd 335 ka have component magnetization directions with positive reverse polarity inclination however the excursional directions are heavily overprinted by the postexcursional field magnetite is the dominant carrier of magnetic remanence and occurs in the pseudosingle domain psd grain size an additional higher coercivity magnetic carrier characterized by low unblocking temperatures 350 c is assumed to be authigenic pyrrhotite a decrease in magnetization intensity down core is mirrored by a reduction in pore water sulfate indicating diagenetic reduction of magnetite despite down core changes in magnetic mineralogy normalized intensity records from site 1089 are comparable with high resolution paleointensity records from the north atlantic e g odp sites 983 and 984 sediment properties and sedimentation patterns within the cape site 1089 and iceland sites 983 and 984 basins are distinctly different at both millennial and orbital timescales and therefore preclude lithologic variability from being the source of this correlation variations in normalized intensity from site 1089 therefore appear to reflect changes in global scale geomagnetic field intensity

late quaternary productivity changes in the western equatorial atlantic evidence from 230th normalized carbonate and organic carbon accumulation rates paleoproductivity changes in the western equatorial atlantic have been estimated from carbonate and marine organic carbon accumulation for the last 180 000 yr from a ceara rise sediment core geob 1523 1 accumulation rates were calculated by normalizing to excess 230th activity paleoproductivity from carbonate accumulation was estimated by a correlation between carbonate and organic carbon fluxes derived from sediment traps deployed in oligotrophic waters results indicate minor productivity changes varying around 30 gc m 2 yr 1 for organic carbon derived estimations and around 45 gc m 2 yr 1 for carbonate derived estimations suggesting that the study area remained a low productivity region throughout the time period examined maxima in western atlantic paleoproductivity occurred during the warm substages of glacials and interglacials in contrast to the eastern tropical atlantic where maxima are recorded in the cold substages this contrast might be caused by a deepening of the thermocline and nutricline in the west connected with a synchronous shallowing in the east the carbonate preservation record was examined for the last 380 000 yr based on variations in percent planktonic foraminiferal fragments and percent coarse fraction only minor carbonate dissolution above 3300 m water depth is observed except for three main dissolution events at isotope stages 4 8 4 and 10 considerable carbonate loss during these intervals is attributed to a decreased production of north atlantic deep water which is associated with vertical expansion of southern source deep water

patterns of ice rafted detritus in the glacial north atlantic 40 55 n the observation by heinrich 1988 that during the last glacial period much of the input of ice rafted detritus to the north atlantic sediments may have occurred as a succession of catastrophic events rekindled interest on the history of the northern ice sheets over the last glacial period in this paper we present a rapid method to study the distribution of these events both in space and time using whole core low field magnetic susceptibility we report on approximately 20 cores covering the last 150 to 250 kyr well defined patterns of ice rafted detritus appear during periods of large continental ice sheet extent although these are not always associated within their maxima most of the events may be traced across the north atlantic ocean for the six most recent heinrich layers hl two distinct patterns exist hl1 hl2 hl4 hl5 are distributed along the northern boundary of the glacial polar front over most of the north atlantic between 40 and 50 n hl3 is more restricted to the central and eastern part of the northern atlantic the nd sr isotopic composition of the material constituting different heinrich events indicates the different provenance of the two patterns hl3 has a typical scandinavia arctic icelandic young crust signature and the others have a large component of northern quebec and northern west greenland old crust material these isotopic results obtained on core su 9008 from the north american basin are in agreement with the study by jantschik and huon 1992 who used k ar dating of silt and clay size fractions of an eastern basin core me 68 89 these data confirm the large spatial scale of these events and the enormous amount of ice rafted detritus they represent

the contemporary physical and chemical flux of aeolian dust a synthesis of direct measurements of dust deposition abstract the deposition of aeolian or windblown dust is widely recognized as an important physical and chemical flux to ecosystems dust deposition adds exogenous mineral and organic material to terrestrial surfaces and can be important for the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients there have been many studies that characterize the physical and chemical composition of dust however few studies have synthesized these observations in order to examine patterns geochemical fluxes we have compiled observations of dust deposition rates particle size distributions psd mineralogy and bulk elemental and organic chemistry the rates of dust deposition observed across the globe vary from almost 0 to greater than 450 g m 2 yr 1 sites receiving dust deposition can be partitioned into broad categories based on there distance from dust source regions when compared to global dust models our results suggest some models may underestimate dust deposition rates at the regional and local scales the distance from the source region that dust is deposited also influences the particle size distributions mineralogy and chemical composition of dust however more consistent dust sampling and geochemical analyses are needed to better constrain these spatial patterns on average the concentrations of most major elements si al fe mg ca k in aeolian dust tend to be similar 20 to the composition of the upper continental crust ucc but there is substantial variability from sample to sample in contrast some elements tend to be depleted na or enriched ti in dust likely as a result of soil weathering processes prior to dust emissions trace elements especially heavy metals are consistently enriched in dust relative to the ucc ecologically important nutrients such as n and p are also present in dust deposition the geochemical flux attributable to dust deposition can be substantial in ecosystems located proximal to dust source regions we calculate estimates of elemental flux rates based on the average chemical composition of aeolian dust and varying rates of deposition these estimated flux rates are useful as a rough gauge of the degree to which dust deposition may influence biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and should be utilized to better constrain deposition estimates of global dust models

glacial interglacial dynamics of the eastern equatorial pacific cold tongue intertropical convergence zone system reconstructed from oxygen isotope records record mean late holocene lh last glacial maximum lgm d 18 o amplitudes ranging between 1 0 and 1 3 we estimate that mean sea surface temperatures sst in this region during the lgm were on average 1 5 0 5 c lower than the lh larger d 18 o amplitudes are observed in sites north of the equator indicating a spatial pattern of reduced meridional sst gradient across the equator during the lgm this result is supported by comparison of mg ca sst reconstructions from two sites straddling the equator we interpret the reduction of this gradient during the lgm as evidence for a less intense cold tongue intertropical convergence zone itcz frontal system a more southerly position of the itcz and weaker southeast equatorial trades in the eep indexterms 1620 global change climate dynamics 3309 3339 meteorology and atmospheric dynamics ocean atmosphere interactions 0312 4504 3344 meteorology and atmospheric dynamics paleoclimatology 4231 oceanography general equatorial oceanography 4267 oceanography general paleoceanography keywords cold tongue itcz oxygen isotopes tropical pacific

oxygen isotopes in fresh water biogenic opal northeastern us allerod younger dryas temperature shift the first oxygen isotope analysis of biogenic opal from lake sediments from the allerod younger dryas transition in a core from linsley pond connecticut gives an average estimate of a 6 c drop in temperature during the younger dryas this shift represents temperatures during the bloom season and may be less than the winter temperature drop the sharp transition itself with a duration of about 200 years suggests that the temperature decrease may have been as large as 12 c previous estimates of the allerod younger dryas temperature shifts are controversial and range from 3 20 c suggesting that further interdisciplinary research on the same samples is warranted

geochemical record of the panama basin during the last glacial maximum carbon event shows that the glacial ocean was not suboxic a geochemical study of sediments associated with the last glacial maximum carbon event in the panama basin has shown that increased glacial productivity raised the redox boundary closer to the sediment water interface leading to increased storage of u and mn in the sediments however it seems improbable that the basin became suboxic and this would suggest that the mn concentrations were not elevated in the glacial ocean fluxes of 230 th and 231 pa were higher in glacial times in the panama basin sediments probably as a consequence of the elevated productivity but age corrected 230 th 231 pa ratios were higher this is consistent with reports of higher particle fluxes external to the basin throughout the glacial pacific ocean

advection and scavenging effects on 230th and 231pa distribution off southwest africa we investigated the controls of hydrography and of scavenging on the distribution of the particle reactive radionuclides 231pa and 230th in the water column and in surface sediments off southwest africa angola and cape basins based on a vertical section of total 230thex concentrations in the water column we show that small differences in the salinity between the north atlantic deep water nadw in the angola basin and the nadw in the cape basin as well as the advection of nadw associated with the namib col current are reflected in total 230thex concentrations these variable total concentrations are believed to reflect the flow path and mixing history of nadw with the nadw in the angola basin being relatively older and 230th enriched compared to the nadw in the cape basin in the area investigated we found high 231paex 230thex ratios 231paex 230thex 0 093 in surface sediments at the continental margin and lower ones 231paex 230thex 0 093 in the open ocean such a distribution is normally interpreted to result from high particle flux at ocean margins boundary scavenging however the lack of any significant depletion of dissolved 230th and 231pa in the water column does not indicate extensive scavenging at the continental margin high 231paex 230thex ratios are constrained to shallow waters depths 2000 m only and coincide with low fractionation between 231pa and 230th indicating that preferential scavenging of 231pa on opal may have caused high 231paex 230thex ratios in the sediments the observed close negative correlation r2 0 82 between 231paex 230thex ratios in sediments and water depths is believed to reflect changes in the particle composition i e a decrease in opal content with water depth in the angola and cape basins the total 231paex concentrations in nadw were the highest observed so far in the atlantic ocean and they are attributed to the meridional export of 231pa from the north atlantic this caused the average dissolved 231pa 230th in the southeast atlantic to be about a factor 2 higher when compared to the north atlantic labrador sea these differences in the dissolved 231pa 230th were not reflected in 231pa 230th ratios of surface sediments because the fractionation is lower in the labrador sea compared to the southeast atlantic i e fractionation counteracts changes in the dissolved 231pa 230th this suggests that fractionation is more important for the determination of 231paex 230thex ratios in sediments than the meridional export of 231pa from the north atlantic

change in atmospheric mineral aerosols in response to climate last glacial period preindustrial modern and doubled carbon dioxide climates desert dust simulations generated by the national center for atmospheric research s community climate system model for the current climate are shown to be consistent with present day satellite and deposition data the response of the dust cycle to last glacial maximum preindustrial modern and doubled carbon dioxide climates is analyzed only natural non land use related dust sources are included in this simulation similar to some previous studies dust production mainly responds to changes in the source areas from vegetation changes not from winds or soil moisture changes alone this model simulates a 92 33 and 60 change in dust loading for the last glacial maximum preindustrial and doubled carbon dioxide climate respectively when impacts of carbon dioxide fertilization on vegetation are included in the model terrestrial sediment records from the last glacial maximum compiled here indicate a large underestimate of deposition in continental regions probably due to the lack of simulation of glaciogenic dust sources in order to include the glaciogenic dust sources as a first approximation we designate the location of these sources and infer the size of the sources using an inversion method that best matches the available data the inclusion of these inferred glaciogenic dust sources increases our dust flux in the last glacial maximum from 2 1 to 3 3 times current deposition

dissolved and particulate 230 th 232 th in the central equatorial pacific ocean evidence for far field transport of the east pacific rise hydrothermal plume we assess the distribution of 230th and 232th along a latitudinal gradient in the central equatorial pacific ocean 155 w 159 w at two sites 8 n and the equator the dissolved 230th concentration profile at 8 n increases nearly linearly from the surface to 2000 m exhibiting behavior consistent with thermodynamic reversible scavenging however from 2000 m to 3000 m the dissolved 230th concentrations exhibit little change before increasing slightly from 3000 m to the bottom at this site dissolved 230th concentrations range from 1 1 fg kg at 100 m to 55 2 fg kg at 4600 m at the equator dissolved 230th concentrations are slightly lower and range from undetectable at 25 m to 19 1 fg kg at 3038 m the pattern in the dissolved 230th concentration profile at the equator is indistinguishable from that at 8 n the mid depth water deviation from equilibrium reversible scavenging between 2 and 3 km in the 230th profiles lower concentrations than expected at both sites occurs in the interval of the water column that is consistent with an interval that has high concentrations of 3he and dissolved fe at other nearby sites this 3he and fe rich signal has been traced to hydrothermal plumes from the east pacific rise thousands of kilometers away we hypothesize that the lower concentrations of 230th in mid depth waters of the central equatorial pacific are a result of a 5000 km transit of waters that have had their 230th scavenged by fe mn particulates close to the epr oceanic residence times of thorium combined with dissolved 232th concentrations suggest dust fluxes of about 0 5 0 6 gm 2yr 1 to the sea surface these fluxes are in agreement with other empirical studies in the pacific but are higher than those suggested by global atmospheric circulation models

variations in productivity and eolian fluxes in the northeastern arabian sea during the past 110 ka abstract high resolution one to two samples ka radionuclide proxy records from core 93kl in the northeastern arabian sea provide evidence for millennial climate variability over the past 110 ka we interpret 230th normalized 232th fluxes as a proxy for eolian input and authigenic uranium concentrations as a proxy for past productivity we attribute orbital and suborbital variations in both proxies to changes in the intensity of the southwest indian ocean monsoon the highest 230th normalized 232th fluxes occur at times that are consistent with the timing of the younger dryas heinrich events 1 7 and cold dansgaard oeschger stadial events recorded in the gisp2 ice core such high dust fluxes may be due to a weakened southwest monsoon in conjunction with strengthened northwesterlies from the arabian peninsula and mesopotamia authigenic uranium concentrations on the other hand are highest during warm dansgaard oeschger interstadials when the southwest monsoon is intensified relative to the northwesterly winds our results also indicate that on orbital timescales maximum average eolian fluxes coincide with the timing of marine isotopic stage mis 2 and 4 while minimum fluxes occur during mis 1 3 and 5 although the forcing mechanism s controlling suborbital variabilities in monsoonal intensity is still debated our findings suggest an atmospheric teleconnection between the low latitude southwest monsoon and north atlantic climate

asian aridity and the zonal westerlies late pleistocene and holocene record of eolian deposition in the northwest pacific ocean rea d k and leinen m 1988 asian aridity and the zonal westerlies late pleistocene and holocene record of eolian deposition in the northwest pacific ocean palaeogeogr palaeoclimatol palaeoecol 66 1 8 a 30 000 year record of eolian deposition in the northwestern pacific ocean provides a history of the aridity of the asian source region and information on the changing latitude and intensity of the zonal westerlies the position of the maximum in eolian flux to the deep sea remained unchanged at 38 to 40 n during this entire time period but the dust flux record of aridity is greatest 6000 years ago at the holocene climatic optimum eolian grainsize data indicate that the northern margin of the westerly jet stream retreated northward during the holocene to a poleward extreme at about 6000 years ago and then moved back toward the equator the change in wind intensity across this margin was continually reduced throughout the holocene these sorts of data enhance our understanding of the behavior of the atmosphere during times of climate change and can be used to test computer generated models of past climatic conditions

quantifying lithogenic inputs to the north pacific ocean using the long lived thorium isotopes abstract dissolved 232th is added to the ocean though the partial dissolution of lithogenic materials such as aerosol dust in the same way as other lithogenically sourced and more biologically important trace metals such as fe oceanic 230th on the other hand is sourced primarily from the highly predictable decay of dissolved 234u the rate at which dissolved 232th is released by mineral dissolution can be constrained by a th removal rate derived from 230th 234u disequilibria assuming steady state calculated fluxes of dissolved 232th can in turn be used to estimate fluxes of other lithogenically sourced dissolved metals as well as the original lithogenic supplies such as aerosol dust deposition given the concentration and fractional solubility of th or other metals in the lithogenic material this method is applied to 7 water column profiles from the innovative north pacific experiment inopex cruise of 2009 and 2 sites from the subtropical north pacific the structure of shallow depth profiles suggests rapid scavenging at the surface and at least partial regeneration of dissolved 232th at 100 200 m depth this rapid cycling could involve colloidal th generated during mineral dissolution which may not be subject to the same removal rates as the more truly dissolved 230th an additional deep source of 232th was revealed in deep waters most likely dissolution of seafloor sediments and offers a constraint on dissolved trace element supply due to boundary exchange

constant bottom water flow into the indian ocean for the past 140 ka indicated by sediment 231pa 230th ratios a down core 231pa 230th record has been measured from the southwestern indian ocean to reconstruct the history of deep water flow into this basin over the last glacial interglacial cycle the 231paxs 230thxs 0 ratio throughout the record is nearly constant at approximately 0 055 significantly lower than the production ratio of 0 093 indicating that the proxy is sensitive to changes in circulation and or sediment flux at this site the consistent value suggests that there has been no change in the inflow of antarctic bottom water to the indian ocean during the last 140 ka in contrast to the changes in deep circulation thought to occur in other ocean basins the stability of the 231paxs 230thxs 0 value in the record contrasts with an existing sortable silt ss record from the same core the observed ss variability is attributed to a local geostrophic effect amplifying small changes in circulation a record of authigenic u from the same core suggests that there was reduced oxygen in bottom waters at the core locality during glacial periods the consistency of the 231paxs 230thxs 0 record implies that this could not have arisen by local changes in productivity thus suggesting a far field control either globally reduced bottom water oxygenation or increased productivity south of the opal belt during glacials

equatorial pacific productivity and dust flux during the mid pleistocene climate transition received 6 may 2005 revised 30 august 2005 accepted 19 september 2005 published 17 december 2005 1 we present a helium isotope record for core tt013 114pc from the central equatorial pacific 140 w 4 n 4432 m water depth spanning a period of 1 million years we focus on the time interval from 560 to 800 kyr largely coinciding with the mid pleistocene climate transition mpt when the dominant period of the earth s climate variability shifted from 41 kyr to 100 kyr the terrigenous 4 he concentrations from our study correlate very well with published titanium concentrations in this core strongly supporting the use of terrigenous 4 he as a monitor of continental dust normalizing titanium and terrigenous 4 he concentrations to 3 he suggests that the dust supply during the mpt was approximately 30 lower compared to the subsequent period 560 100 kyr the 3 he normalized barium aluminum and phosphorus concentrations trace elements with a predominantly biogenic source in these sediments are relatively constant this is in contrast to previous studies that reported an apparent rise of titanium normalized productivity proxies rather than a significant increase in productivity during the mpt we conclude that the dust flux to the central equatorial pacific was reduced and that the export productivity was approximately constant during this period of climate reorganization

the african humid period and the record of marine upwelling from excess 230th in ocean drilling program hole 658c using a high resolution 230 th normalized record of sediment flux we document the deglacial and holocene history of north african aridity and coastal upwelling at ocean drilling program hole 658c at both the end of the younger dryas and after the 8 2 ka event there are significant drops in terrigenous accumulation at our site indicating an increase in the monsoon moisture flux over africa at this time at 5 5 ka there is an abrupt end to the african humid period and a return to stronger upwelling conditions for carbonate and opal fluxes the 230 th normalization completely changes the shape of each record based on percentage variations alone this site is a clear example of how variations in one sediment component can obscure changes in the others and it demonstrates the need for radionuclide measurements more generally in paleoceanography by taking our new records and a large amount of previous data from this site we conclude that increases in african moisture are tightly coupled to decreases in coastal upwelling intensity

230th normalization an essential tool for interpreting sedimentary fluxes during the late quaternary there is increasing evidence indicating that syndepositional redistribution of sediment on the seafloor by bottom currents is common and can significantly affect sediment mass accumulation rates notwithstanding its common incidence this process generally referred to as sediment focusing is often difficult to recognize if redistribution is near synchronous to deposition the stratigraphy of the sediment is not disturbed and sediment focusing can easily be overlooked ignoring it however can lead to serious misinterpretations of sedimentary fluxes particularly when past changes in export flux from the overlying water are inferred in many instances this problem can be resolved at least for sediments deposited during the late quaternary by normalizing to the flux of 230th scavenged from seawater which is nearly constant and equivalent to the known rate of production of 230th from the decay of dissolved 234u we review the principle advantages and limitations of this method notwithstanding its limitations it is clear that 230th normalization does provide a means of achieving more accurate interpretations of sedimentary fluxes and eliminates the risk of serious misinterpretations of sediment mass accumulation rates

do geochemical estimates of sediment focusing pass the sediment test in the equatorial pacific 1 the paleoceanographic recording fidelity of pelagic sediments is limited by chemical diagenesis and physical mixing bioturbation and horizontal sediment transport diagenesis and bioturbation are relatively well studied but the effects of physical sedimentation have been largely ignored modeling u series isotopes e g 230th can potentially quantify horizontal sediment movement but model horizontal sediment focusing often equals or exceeds the vertical particle rain we find no evidence of this level of sediment focusing in the equatorial pacific from geophysical data or sediment core comparisons the overestimate of sediment focusing by 230th is probably caused by poor model assumptions that sediment does not fractionate does not sort according to size during transport and that 230th cannot leak from slowly accumulating sediments both assumptions are weak u series methods do hold promise to quantify sediment focusing if properly calibrated with calibration the trade offs between seeking high sedimentation rates for better time resolution and the blurring by horizontal sediment focusing can be better assessed

deglacial pulses of deep ocean silicate into the subtropical north atlantic ocean records of biogenic opal export in the north atlantic ocean show pronounced maxima during each glacial termination over the past 550 000 years consistent with a strong deglacial reduction in the formation of silicate poor glacial north atlantic intermediate water and a consequent increase in upward silicate transport the southern ocean is thought to have an important role in driving glacial interglacial changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations but the mechanism responsible for carbon dioxide release upon deglaciation remains unclear based on a record of biogenic opal export that exhibits opal maxima during each glacial termination of the past 550 000 years nele meckler et al propose that deglacial reduction in glacial north atlantic intermediate water led to downward mixing of warm low density surface water ultimately triggering antarctic overturning and carbon dioxide release to the atmosphere growing evidence suggests that the low atmospheric co2 concentration of the ice ages resulted from enhanced storage of co2 in the ocean interior largely as a result of changes in the southern ocean1 early in the most recent deglaciation a reduction in north atlantic overturning circulation seems to have driven co2 release from the southern ocean2 3 4 5 but the mechanism connecting the north atlantic and the southern ocean remains unclear biogenic opal export in the low latitude ocean relies on silicate from the underlying thermocline the concentration of which is affected by the circulation of the ocean interior here we report a record of biogenic opal export from a coastal upwelling system off the coast of northwest africa that shows pronounced opal maxima during each glacial termination over the past 550 000 years these opal peaks are consistent with a strong deglacial reduction in the formation of silicate poor glacial north atlantic intermediate water2 gnaiw the loss of gnaiw allowed mixing with underlying silicate rich deep water to increase the silicate supply to the surface ocean an increase in westerly wind driven upwelling in the southern ocean in response to the north atlantic change has been proposed to drive the deglacial rise in atmospheric co2 refs 3 4 however such a circulation change would have accelerated the formation of antarctic intermediate water and sub antarctic mode water which today have as little silicate as north atlantic deep water and would have thus maintained low silicate concentrations in the atlantic thermocline the deglacial opal maxima reported here suggest an alternative mechanism for the deglacial co2 release5 6 just as the reduction in gnaiw led to upward silicate transport it should also have allowed the downward mixing of warm low density surface water to reach into the deep ocean the resulting decrease in the density of the deep atlantic relative to the southern ocean surface promoted antarctic overturning which released co2 to the atmosphere

albedo of dirty snow during conditions of melt the evolution of spectrally averaged albedo wavelengths between 0 28 m and 2 8 m of snow surfaces treated with known initial concentrations of particles of submicron sized soot and air fall volcanic ash was investigated during conditions of natural melt depending on the particle type and concentration the initial applications reduced the surface albedo to values ranging from 0 18 to 0 41 which were substantially lower than the albedo of the untreated natural snow about 0 61 many of the soot particles flushed through the snowpack with the meltwater and surface concentrations of soot greater than about 5 10 7 kg kg did not persist for more than a few days the migration of particles to depth caused the snow to brighten after the initial application thus limiting the amount of albedo reduction and the consequent effects on melting nevertheless the soot remaining near the surface had a substantial long term effect the residual concentration of 5 10 7 kg kg persisted for several weeks and compared to the untreated surface reduced the albedo by about 30 and increased melting by 50 particles of volcanic ash with diameters larger than about 5 m remained at or near the snow surface although many of the smaller particles flushed through the snow with the meltwater the surface albedo was not changed significantly by their removal the different behaviors of the ash and soot are probably related to the difference in their particle size distributions in relation to the thickness of water films that form the transport paths under conditions of partial saturation that are characteristic of melting snow

testing the 231pa 230th paleocirculation proxy a data versus 2d model comparison 1 variations of the atlantic meridional overturning circulation amoc are believed to have crucially influenced earth s climate due to its key role in the inter hemispheric redistribution of heat and carbon to assess its past strength the sedimentary 231pa 230th proxy has been developed and improved but also contested due to its sensitivity to other factors beyond ocean circulation in order to provide a better basis for the understanding of the atlantic 231pa 230th system and therefore to shed light on the controversy we compare new measurements of holocene sediments from the north brazilian margin to water column data and the output of a two dimensional scavenging circulation model based on modern circulation patterns and reversible scavenging parameters we show that sedimentary 231pa 230th data from one specific area of the atlantic are in very good agreement with model results suggesting that sedimentary 231pa 230th is predominantly driven by the amoc therefore 231pa 230th represents an appropriate method to reconstruct past amoc at least qualitatively along the western margin

reversed flow of atlantic deep water during the last glacial maximum the meridional overturning circulation moc of the atlantic ocean is considered to be one of the most important components of the climate system this is because its warm surface currents such as the gulf stream redistribute huge amounts of energy from tropical to high latitudes and influence regional weather and climate patterns whereas its lower limb ventilates the deep ocean and affects the storage of carbon in the abyss away from the atmosphere despite its significance for future climate the operation of the moc under contrasting climates of the past remains controversial nutrient based proxies1 2 and recent model simulations3 indicate that during the last glacial maximum the convective activity in the north atlantic ocean was much weaker than at present in contrast rate sensitive radiogenic 231pa 230th isotope ratios from the north atlantic have been interpreted to indicate only minor changes in moc strength4 5 6 here we show that the basin scale abyssal circulation of the atlantic ocean was probably reversed during the last glacial maximum and was dominated by northward water flow from the southern ocean these conclusions are based on new high resolution data from the south atlantic ocean that establish the basin scale north to south gradient in 231pa 230th and thus the direction of the deep ocean circulation our findings are consistent with nutrient based proxies and argue that further analysis of 231pa 230th outside the north atlantic basin will enhance our understanding of past ocean circulation provided that spatial gradients are carefully considered this broader perspective suggests that the modern pattern of the atlantic moc with a prominent southerly flow of deep waters originating in the north atlantic arose only during the holocene epoch

the nature origin and accumulation of loess abstract loess can be defined simply as a terrestrial clastic sediment composed predominantly of silt size particles which is formed essentially by the accumulation of wind blown dust there are three fundamental requirements for its formation 1 a sustained source of dust 2 adequate wind energy to transport the dust and 3 a suitable accumulation site most loess has been modified to some degree by local reworking bioturbation and syn depositional weathering but a process of loessification is not necessary for a dust deposit to qualify as loess the terms primary loess and secondary loess have previously been used to described wind deposited loess and redeposited loess respectively but it is more accurate to describe material reworked and redeposited by non aeolian processes as loess derived colluvium or loess derived alluvium during the quaternary loess formed in three main situations 1 mid continental shield areas beyond the limits of ice sheets periglacial loess 2 on the margins of high mountain ranges perimontane loess and 3 on the semi arid margins of some lowland deserts peridesert loess peridesert loess is relatively poorly developed partly due to the limited efficiency of silt generating mechanisms in low land deserts compared with glaciation but also important is the tendency in arid areas for dust to be dispersed over a wide area and to be rapidly reworked after deposition particularly in areas which experience frequent climatic changes the remarkably thick loess of china and central asia results from an unusual combination of conditions which has persisted for much of the last 2 3 million years namely rapid uplift of the tibetan plateau and surrounding mountain ranges high rates of sediment production and supply to adjacent basins a strong northwesterly and westerly wind regime and the existence of effective dust traps downwind of the source regions

abrupt intensification of the sw indian ocean monsoon during the last deglaciation constraints from th pa and he isotopes abstract sediments from western arabian sea core 74kl representing the last 23 ka were analyzed for helium thorium and protactinium isotopes assuming global average fluxes of extraterrestrial 3he and 230th the average 3he derived sediment mass accumulation rate mar is a factor of 1 8 higher than the average 230th derived mar 3he and 230th derived mars converge however during the younger dryas yd and during the peak of the early holocene humid interval these features not seen anywhere else in the world probably reflect a combination of climate driven changes in the flux of 230th and 3he ratios of xs231pa xs230th proxies of paleoproductivity are lowest during the last glacial maximum lgm and increase abruptly during the bolling allerod later following a sudden decrease to near lgm values during the yd they rise abruptly to maximum values for the entire record in the early holocene we hypothesize that low xs231pa xs230th ratios reflect low productivity due to the decreased intensity of the sw monsoon whereas the opposite is true for high ratios the correlation between arabian sea productivity and monsoonal upwelling on the one hand and north atlantic climate variability on the other suggests a linkage between high and low latitude climates caused by changing patterns of atmospheric circulation

increased dust deposition in the pacific southern ocean during glacial periods dust deposition in the southern ocean constitutes a critical modulator of past global climate variability but how it has varied temporally and geographically is underdetermined here we present data sets of glacial interglacial dust supply cycles from the largest southern ocean sector the polar south pacific indicating three times higher dust deposition during glacial periods than during interglacials for the past million years although the most likely dust source for the south pacific is australia and new zealand the glacial interglacial pattern and timing of lithogenic sediment deposition is similar to dust records from antarctica and the south atlantic dominated by patagonian sources these similarities imply large scale common climate forcings such as latitudinal shifts of the southern westerlies and regionally enhanced glaciogenic dust mobilization in new zealand and patagonia

enhanced scavenging of 231pa relative to 230th in the south atlantic south of the polar front implications for the use of the 231pa 230th ratio as a paleoproductivity proxy abstract the fractionation of 230th and 231pa was investigated throughout the atlantic sector of the southern ocean published scavenging models generally assume that the 231pa 230t ratio of surface sediments is primarily determined by the mass flux of particles this relationship holds north of the polar front where low primary productivity coincides with ratios of unsupported 231pa 230th xs 231pa 230th in surface sediments below the production ratio of both radionuclides in the water column however we observed high xs231pa 230th ratios conventionally interpreted as a high productivity signal in surface sediments south of the polar front especially throughout the weddell sea in contradiction with the low particle flux of this region measurements of both dissolved and particulate fractions of 231pa and 230th in the water column revealed a strong n s decrease in the th pa fractionation factor from typical open ocean values around 10 north of the polar front to values between 1 and 2 south of 60 s this observation clearly indicates that the high xs231pa 230th ratios in surface sediments south of the antarctic circumpolar current are produced by a n s increase in the relative scavenging efficiency of 231pa relative to 230th most probably due to a change in the chemical composition of particulate matter and not by a high mass flux it is speculated that biogenic opal suggested not to significantly fractionate231pa and 230th may explain the enhanced scavenging of 231pa to the south this assumption is further supported by extremely high 231pa 230th ratios up to 0 34 in material collected with sediment traps south of the polar front where fluxes are primarily determined by biogenic opal based on these results we conclude that in regions where the sedimenting flux is dominated by biogenic opal the 231pa 230th ratio is not a reliable indicator for the mass flux of particles thus limiting its use as a paleoproductivity proxy in the southern ocean

alkenone temperature anomalies in the brazil malvinas confluence area caused by lateral advection of suspended particulate material alkenone temperatures derived from suspended particulate organic material which was collected in austral summer 2001 from surface waters 5 m south of the brazil malvinas confluence deviate from measured temperatures by 4 to 7 c when uk 37 ratios are converted to temperature using the muller et al 1998 calibration and up to 3 c when using the calibration of conte et al 2006 in contrast alkenone temperatures determined from particulate material sampled north of the confluence reveal close correspondence to in situ temperatures or show slightly higher values we suggest that the southern samples are biased by suspended organic detritus originating from the cold subpolar waters of the northward flowing malvinas current whereas the northern samples carry an uk 37 signal of tropical subtropical origin transported southward with the brazil current on the basis of surface ocean transport pathways and velocities simulated with the large scale geostrophic lsg ocean general circulation model we identify areas of the world ocean where alkenone temperatures are potentially biased to higher or lower values due to long particle residence times and lateral advection by surface currents

southern hemisphere westerly wind changes during the last glacial maximum paleo data synthesis changes in the strength and position of southern hemisphere westerly winds during the last glacial cycle have been invoked to explain both millennial and glacial interglacial climate fluctuations however neither paleo models nor paleodata agree on the magnitude or even the sign of the change in wind strength and latitude during the most studied glacial period the last glacial maximum lgm compared to the recent past this paper synthesizes paleo environmental data that have been used to infer changes in lgm winds data compilations are provided for changes in terrestrial moisture dust deposition sea surface temperatures and ocean fronts and ocean productivity and existing data on southern hemisphere ocean circulation changes during the lgm are summarized we find that any hypothesis of lgm wind and climate change needs to provide a plausible explanation for increased moisture on the west coast of continents cooler temperatures and higher productivity in the subantarctic zone and reductions in agulhas leakage around southern africa our comparison suggests that an overall strengthening an equatorward displacement or no change at all in winds could all be interpreted as consistent with observations if a single cause related to the southern westerlies is sought for all the evidence presented then an equatorward displacement or strengthening of the winds would be consistent with the largest proportion of the observations however other processes such as weakening or poleward shifts in winds a weakened hydrological cycle extended sea ice cover and changed buoyancy fluxes cannot be ruled out as potential explanations of observed changes in moisture surface temperature and productivity we contend that resolving the position and strength of westerly winds during the lgm remains elusive based on data reconstructions alone however we believe that these data reconstructions of environmental conditions can be used in conjunction with model simulations to identify which processes best represent westerly wind conditions during the lgm

combining seawater 232th and 230th concentrations to determine dust fluxes to the surface ocean abstract aeolian dust is a significant source of iron and other nutrients to the surface ocean but constraining the size of this flux is difficult chemical tracers such as al are useful but are limited by lack of information about their rate of removal from surface seawater in this study we test the use of th isotopes as an improved tracer of dust input by measuring 232 th and 230 th concentrations of upper ocean seawater at six stations along a meridional atlantic section that spans the saharan dust plume open ocean 232 th like al is dominantly derived from dust dissolution while 230 th is produced in seawater by u decay and provides an assessment of th removal rates the highest 232 th concentrations and 232 th 230 th ratios particularly in the surface waters are observed at stations expected to be influenced by input of saharan dust the pattern of 232 th concentration is in agreement with dissolved al distributions and seawifs aerosol imagery supporting the use of 232 th as a proxy for short term dust addition deeper in the water column 232 th concentration may also reflect longer term dust inputs in addition lateral input of 232 th from mediterranean outflow water is detected at 1000 m in the north atlantic surface water residence times are calculated separately from 230 th and 234 th using a simple scavenging model and values from the two isotopes are generally consistent with one another th 230 residence times appear to reflect the longer term value however rather than exhibiting the strong seasonal influence seen for 234 th these th residence times allow dust flux to the surface ocean to be calculated using the known concentration of th in dust and assumed values for the solubility of dust th in seawater resulting dust fluxes show good agreements with models of dust deposition if th solubility is 1 to 5 in the north atlantic yielding fluxes of 0 4 19 2 g m 2 yr 1 and 5 to 10 in the south atlantic fluxes of 0 2 0 7 g m 2 yr 1 despite the need for better constraints on the fractional solubility of dust th this study demonstrates the power of combining th isotope measurements to constrain dust fluxes to the surface ocean

the paleoclimatic record provided by eolian deposition in the deep sea the geologic history of wind the mineral component of pelagic sediment is brought to the deep sea by transport in the wind extraction and analysis of this dust allows estimation of the past aridity of the eolian source region via flux determinations and of the intensity of the transporting winds from grain size data these two parameters the grain size and mass flux of dust vary independently there are three significant sources of modern dust eastern and central asia northwest africa and arabia all in the northern hemisphere as the rainfall associated with the intertropical convergence zone is an effective barrier to southerly transport of dust the northern hemisphere is an order of magnitude more dusty than is the southern an asymmetry that has characterized most of the cenozoic eolian flux data show that most of the northern hemisphere was more arid during glacial maxima with 3 to 5 times as much dust transported during glacial stages than during interglacials only northwestern south america varied in the opposite sense the periodicity of quaternary variation in both eolian flux and eolian grain size data is strongly influenced by the milankovitch cycles of orbital variability wind intensities vary on a shorter time scale than the general 100 kyr cycles of glaciation and general aridity eolian grain sizes display forcing at precessional 19 and 23 kyr tilt 41 kyr and at approximately 30 kyr periodicities as a result the generalization that winds are uniformly stronger during glacial times is not valid whole cenozoic records show that the largest change in dust flux an order of magnitude increase occurred in the northern hemisphere and reflects continental drying associated with the late pliocene onset of northern hemisphere glaciation southern hemisphere eolian records show no sign of paleoclimatic changes in the late pliocene the most important change in cenozoic atmospheric circulation was a severalfold reduction in wind intensity that occurred at the time of the paleocene eocene boundary before then latest cretaceous and paleocene winds were essentially as strong as those of the late cenozoic this shift appears to be one of several climatic responses to a change in the nature and amount of global heat transport at about 55 ma

geologic history of the archean buhwa greenstone belt and surrounding granite gneiss terrane zimbabwe with implications for the evolution of the limpopo belt the buhwa greenstone belt bgb of southern zimbabwe is the only major greenstone belt in the archean zimbabwe craton directly adjacent to the granulite facies rocks that constitute the northern marginal zone of the limpopo belt the deformational history and assembly of the bgb shed light on the evolution of the northern marginal zone zimbabwe craton transition assembly of the region began with deposition of the dominantly sedimentary cover succession at 3 0 ga on banded gneisses of the 3 5 ga tokwe segment at 2 9 ga the northern margin of the greenstone belt experienced kilometres of ductile oblique slip dextral shearing this shear zone was later intruded by the granitic to tonalitic 2 9 ga chipinda batholith the remaining events recognized in the region occurred during the time span 2 9 2 5 ga northwest directed thrusting of the northern marginal zone over the zimbabwe craton took place along a collection of discrete typically metre wide shear zones which collectively form the tectonic b

the u series toolbox for paleoceanography the geochemistry of marine sediments is a major source of information about the past environment of the many measurements that provide such information those of the u series nuclides are unusual in that they inform us about the rate and timescales of processes oceanic processes such as sedimentation productivity and circulation typically occur on timescales too short to be assessed using parent daughter isotope systems such as rb sr or sm nd so the only radioactive clocks that we can turn to are those provided by cosmogenic nuclides principally 14c or the u series nuclides this makes the u series nuclides powerful allies in the quest to understand the past ocean climate system and has led to their widespread application over the last decade as in other applications of the u series those in paleoceanography rely on fractionation of the nuclides away from secular equilibrium in the oceanic setting this fractionation is generally due to differences in the solubility of the various nuclides the behavior of the u series nuclides in the ocean environment was widely researched in the middle decades of the twentieth century this work established knowledge of the concentrations of the nuclides in the various compartments of the ocean system and of their fluxes between these compartments such understanding was comprehensively summarized in the ivanovich and harmon u series volume 1992 particularly by cochran 1992 understanding of the behavior of the u series nuclides has not advanced very dramatically in the decade since that summary but a major theme of research has been the use of this geochemical understanding to develop u series tools to assess the past environment table 1 view this table table 1 summary of seawater data for u series nuclides with paleoceanographic applications s soluble i insoluble full descriptions of the paleoceanographic uses and references are provided in the text further details of the half

tracking large tabular icebergs using the seawinds ku band microwave scatterometer abstract knowledge of iceberg locations is important for safety reasons as well as for understanding many geophysical and biological processes originally designed to measure wind speed and direction over the ocean seawinds is a microwave scatterometer that operates at 13 4 ghz ku band on the quikscat satellite radar measurements from seawinds are collected and processed on a daily basis using resolution enhancement techniques to produce daily radar images because icebergs scatter microwave energy more than sea ice and sea water icebergs are detected as high backscatter targets surrounded by lower backscatter regions in daily seawinds images as a result iceberg positions are determined in real time and a time series of iceberg positions is maintained in an antarctic iceberg database by brigham young university s microwave earth remote sensing mers laboratory since seawinds operates independent of both solar illumination and cloud cover and has a large daily spatial coverage this paper demonstrates that seawinds is an excellent platform to detect and track large tabular icebergs these icebergs are generally larger than 5 km and are typically characterized as a rough ice plateau above the surrounding sea water or sea ice the number of icebergs tracked in the mers antarctic iceberg database is found to be generally greater than the number of icebergs tracked by the national ice center the movement patterns of all icebergs detected by seawinds are also analyzed and 90 of icebergs are found to travel a counter clockwise path around antarctica and accumulate in the weddell and scotia seas iceberg detection and tracking is demonstrated via multiple case studies that highlight icebergs c 19a and a 22a using the mers database and through real time operational support of the 2005 2008 and 2009 nsf antarctic cruises iceberg positions are validated by using collocated high resolution satellite imagery and by navigating the nsf ships to physically intercept several large tabular icebergs in the weddell and scotia seas

diatom productivity in the equatorial pacific ocean from the last glacial period to the present a test of the silicic acid leakage hypothesis 1 the silicic acid leakage hypothesis salh suggests that during glacial periods unused silicic acid escaped the southern ocean into the equatorial oceans causing an ecological shift favoring diatoms relative to coccolithophorids and a drawdown of co2 the 230th normalized opal fluxes and 231pa 230th ratios were measured in eleven equatorial pacific cores to reconstruct diatom productivity over the past 30 kyr and to test the salh holocene spatial patterns of opal flux are strongly correlated with 231pa 230th ratios and with satellite estimates of primary productivity down core opal flux records do not support the salh but show holocene opal burial to exceed that of the late glacial period by 35 or 2 8 gt opal kyr across the equatorial pacific this suggests that the salh may not account for lower atmospheric co2 levels during the late glacial however the data do support results from previous studies that invoke increased el nino like conditions during this time

climatically forced organic carbon burial in equatorial atlantic and pacific oceans over the past ten years sedimentary geochemists have noted that climate changes associated with pleistocene glaciations have had a pronounced effect on the rate of organic carbon burial found in the tropical oceans1 4 in particular two to five times higher organic carbon accumulation rates have been observed for the 18 kyr bp glacial maximum than for the holocene in several short sediment cores from both oceans see fig 1 here i present 300 kyr time series for organic carbon mass accumulation rate from four sediment cores two each from the equatorial pacific and atlantic and show that orbital forcing of global climate has strongly affected the rate of organic carbon burial in the equatorial oceans

eolian dust input to the subarctic north pacific eolian dust is a significant source of iron and other nutrients that are essential for the health of marine ecosystems and potentially a controlling factor of the high nutrient low chlorophyll status of the subarctic north pacific we map the spatial distribution of dust input using three different geochemical tracers of eolian dust 4he 232th and rare earth elements in combination with grain size distribution data from a set of core top sediments covering the entire subarctic north pacific using the suite of geochemical proxies to fingerprint different lithogenic components we deconvolve eolian dust input from other lithogenic inputs such as volcanic ash ice rafted debris riverine and hemipelagic input while the open ocean sites far away from the volcanic arcs are dominantly composed of pure eolian dust lithogenic components other than eolian dust play a more crucial role along the arcs in sites dominated by dust eolian dust input appears to be characterized by a nearly uniform grain size mode at 4 m applying the 230th normalization technique our proxies yield a consistent pattern of uniform dust fluxes of 1 2 g m2 yr across the subarctic north pacific elevated eolian dust fluxes of 2 4 g m2 yr characterize the westernmost region off japan and the southern kurile islands south of 45 n and west of 165 e along the main pathway of the westerly winds the core top based dust flux reconstruction is consistent with recent estimates based on dissolved thorium isotope concentrations in seawater from the subarctic north pacific the dust flux pattern compares well with state of the art dust model predictions in the western and central subarctic north pacific but we find that dust fluxes are higher than modeled fluxes by 0 5 1 g m2 yr in the northwest northeast and eastern subarctic north pacific our results provide an important benchmark for biogeochemical models and a robust approach for downcore studies testing dust induced iron fertilization of past changes in biological productivity in the subarctic north pacific

millennial scale instability of the antarctic ice sheet during the last glaciation records of ice rafted detritus ird concentration in deep sea cores from the southeast atlantic ocean reveal millennial scale pulses of ird delivery between 20 000 and 74 000 years ago prominent ird layers correlate across the polar frontal zone suggesting episodes of antarctic ice sheet instability carbon isotopes 13 c of benthic foraminifers a proxy of deepwater circulation reveal that south atlantic ird events coincided with strong increases in north atlantic deep water nadw production and inferred warming interstadials in the high latitude north atlantic sea level rise or increased nadw production associated with strong interstadials may have resulted in destabilization of grounded ice shelves and possible surging in the weddell sea region of west antarctica

geochemistry of eolian dust in pacific pelagic sediments implications for paleoclimatic interpretations geochemical data rees th sc were determined for the operationally defined eolian dust oded fraction 63 m of late quaternary sediment samples n 57 from the north and equatorial pacific ocean paleoclimate studies commonly have assumed that this sediment fraction represents eolian materials from continental source regions this study shows on the basis of geochemical data published mineralogical data and mixing models that the oded fraction actually is a mixture of materials from two endmember sources the continental crust eolian transported weathering products and the oceanic crust primarily volcanogenic material mixing model results show that the average ash content is significant in the oded fraction equatorial pacific 43 north pacific 24 we have used this information to reconsider and refine the results of previous paleoclimate studies in the northwest pacific the flux of the eolian fraction is greater during glacial stages and shows a latitudinal maximum between 35 n and 42 n eolian fluxes are greatest during interglacial periods in the equatorial pacific these results are consistent with previous interpretations in contrast to previous assumptions eolian mass accumulation rates may not be a valid indicator of paleo aridity because they are correlated with grain size furthermore the relative abundance of the two endmembers is correlated with the average grain size of the dust fraction the continental crust component is associated with larger grains this compositional effect should be considered in future studies which commonly utilize grain size as a proxy indicator of paleo wind intensity

does sedimentary 231pa 230th from the bermuda rise monitor past atlantic meridional overturning circulation 1 ocean circulation may have undergone reductions and reinvigorations in the past closely tied to regional climate changes measurements of 231pa 230th ratios in a sediment core from the bermuda rise have been interpreted as evidence that the atlantic meridional overturning circulation amoc was weakened or completely eliminated during a period of catastrophic iceberg discharges heinrich event 1 h1 here we present new data from the bermuda rise that show further 231pa 230th peaks during heinrich 2 h2 and heinrich 3 h3 additionally a tight correlation between diatom abundances biogenic silica and 231pa 230th is discovered in this core our results redirect the interpretation of 231pa 230th from the bermuda rise as a proxy for ocean circulation towards a proxy that reacts highly sensitive to changes of particle composition and water mass properties

export fluxes of calcite in the eastern equatorial pacific from the last glacial maximum to present 1 the eastern equatorial pacific eep is an important center of biological productivity generating significant organic carbon and calcite fluxes to the deep ocean we reconstructed paleocalcite flux for the past 30 000 years in four cores collected beneath the equatorial upwelling and the south equatorial current sec by measuring ex230th normalized calcite accumulation rates corrected for dissolution with a newly developed proxy for fraction of calcite preserved this method produced very similar results at the four sites and revealed that the export flux of calcite was 30 50 lower during the lgm compared to the holocene the internal consistency of these results supports our interpretation which is also in agreement with emerging data indicating lower glacial productivity in the eep possibly as a result of lower nutrient supply from the southern ocean via the equatorial undercurrent however these findings contradict previous interpretations based on mass accumulation rates mar of biogenic material in the sediment of the eep which have been taken as reflecting higher glacial productivity due to stronger wind driven upwelling

231pa and 230th in surface sediments of the arctic ocean implications for 231pa 230th fractionation boundary scavenging and advective export abstract activities of 231pa and 230th in surface sediments from the arctic ocean and greenland norwegian seas are used to examine the redistribution of these water column produced tracers between the low productivity interior basins and high particle flux marginal areas sediment 231paxs 230thxs ratios throughout the canadian and eurasian basins and the high particle flux chukchi slope region are essentially invariant average 0 063 0 014 n 39 and significantly below the water column production ratio 0 093 231paxs 230thxs ratios are also below the production ratio in the seasonally high productivity greenland norwegian sea basins average 0 082 0 024 n 13 though they are 30 higher than the interior arctic the low sediment 231paxs 230thxs ratios are attributed to the net export of 39 of dissolved 231pa produced in intermediate deep waters as opposed to 10 of 230th through fram strait the negligible 230th export combined with the reported low 230thxs inventory of basin sediments and high 230thxs inventory in chukchi slope sediments points to significant boundary scavenging of 230th in the arctic the invariant 231paxs 230thxs ratios further indicate that scavenging of 230th is comparable to 231pa i e fractionation to a similar degree between the two nuclides in both the interior basins and margins thus while significant boundary scavenging of both 231pa and 230th occurs in the arctic there is a distinct lack of basin margin fractionation and a sizable export of 231pa there is also likely to be export of other similarly particle reactive radionuclides e g 10be pu isotopes out of the arctic

the response of excess 230th and extraterrestrial 3he to sediment redistribution at the blake ridge western north atlantic the constant flux proxies excess 230th 230thxs and extraterrestrial 3he 3heet are commonly used to calculate sedimentary mass accumulation rates and to quantify lateral advection of sediment at core sites in settings with significant lateral input or removal of sediment these calculations depend on the assumption that concentrations of 230thxs and 3heet are the same in both advected sediment and sediment falling through the water column above the core site sediment redistribution is known to fractionate grain sizes preferentially transporting fine grains though relatively few studies have examined the grain size distribution of 230thxs and 3heet presently available data indicate that both are concentrated in fine grains suggesting that fractionation during advection may bias accumulation rate and lateral advection estimates based on these proxies in this study we evaluate the behavior of 230thxs and 3heet in holocene and last glacial samples from two cores from the blake ridge a drift deposit in the western north atlantic at the end of the last glacial period both cores received large amounts of laterally transported sediment enriched in fine grained material we find that accumulation rates calculated by normalization to 230th and 3he are internally consistent despite large spatial and temporal differences in sediment advection our analyses of grain size fractions indicate that 70 of 3heet bearing grains are in the 20 m fraction with roughly equal amounts in the 4 and 4 20 m fractions 230thxs is concentrated in 4 m grains relative to 4 to 20 m grains by approximately a factor of 2 in holocene samples and by a much larger factor averaging a factor of 10 in glacial samples despite these enrichments of both constant flux proxies in fine particles the fidelity of 230th and 3he based accumulation rate estimates appears to be preserved even in settings with extreme sediment redistribution perhaps due to the cohesive behavior of fine particles in marine settings

near collapse of the meridional sst gradient in the eastern equatorial pacific during heinrich stadial 1 1 sea surface temperatures sst and inorganic continental input over the last 25 000 years 25 ka are reconstructed in the far eastern equatorial pacific eep based on three cores stretching from the equatorial front 0 01 n me0005 24jc into the cold tongue region 3 6 s tr163 31p and v19 30 we revisit previously published alkenone derived sst records for these sites and present a revised chronology for v19 30 inorganic continental input is quantified at all three sites based on 230th normalized fluxes of the long lived continental isotope thorium 232 and interpreted to be largely dust our data show a very weak meridional cross equatorial sst gradient during heinrich stadial 1 hs1 18 15 ka b p and high dust input along with peak export production at and north of the equator these findings are corroborated by an earth system model experiment for hs1 that simulates intensified northeasterly trade winds in the eep stronger equatorial upwelling and surface cooling furthermore the related southward shift of the intertropical convergence zone itcz during hs1 is also indicative of drier conditions in the typical source regions for dust

partial breaking of a mature seismic gap the 1987 earthquakes in new britain to better understand the mechanics of subduction and the process of breaking a mature seismic gap we study seismic activity along the western new britain subduction segment 147 e 151 e 4 s 8 s through earthquakes with m b 5 0 in the outer rise the upper area of subducting slab and at intermediate depths to 250 km from january 1964 to december 1990 the segment last broke fully in large earthquakes of december 28 1945 m s 7 9 and may 6 1947 m s 7 7 and its higher seismic potential has been recognized by mccann et al 1979 recently the segment broke partially in two smaller events of february 8 1987 m s 7 4 and october 16 1987 m s 7 4 leaving still unbroken areas

thorium 230 normalized particle flux and sediment focusing in the panama basin region during the last 30 000 years 1 application of the 230 th normalization method to estimate sediment burial fluxes in six cores from the eastern equatorial pacific eep reveals that bulk sediment and organic carbon fluxes display a coherent regional pattern during the holocene that is consistent with modern oceanographic conditions in contrast with estimates of bulk mass accumulation rates mars derived from core chronologies two nearby sites less than 10 km apart which have different mars show nearly identical 230 th normalized bulk fluxes focusing factors derived from the 230 th data at the foot of the carnegie ridge in the panama basin are 2 in the holocene implying that lateral sediment addition is significant in this part of the basin new geochemical data and existing literature provide evidence for a hydrothermal source of sediment in the southern part of the panama basin and for downslope transport from the top of the carnegie ridge the compilation of core records suggests that sediment focusing is spatially and temporally variable in the eep during oxygen isotope stage 2 ois 2 from 13 27 ka bp focusing appears even higher compared to the holocene at most sites similar to earlier findings in the eastern and central equatorial pacific the magnitude of the glacial increase in focusing factors however is strongly dependent on the accuracy of age models we offer two possible explanations for the increase in glacial focusing compared to the holocene the first one is that the apparent increase in lateral sediment redistribution is partly or even largely an artifact of insufficient age control in the eep while the second explanation which assumes that the observed increase is real involves enhanced deep sea tidal current flow during periods of low sea level stand

variations in terrigenous input into the deep equatorial atlantic during the past 24 000 years estimates of terrigenous fluxes at three different water depths at two sites in the equatorial atlantic by normalization against excess 230 th flux indicate that the flux of terrigenous material to the seafloor was significantly higher during the last glacial period than it is today fluxes started to decrease during deglaciation and reached minimal values in the middle of the holocene from 15 000 to 5 000 years ago there was a substantial increase in flux with increasing water depth below 2 800 meters this increase may reflect resuspension and lateral transport of slope and rise sediment possibly because of intensification of deepwater circulation during that period

a 28 ka history of sea surface temperature primary productivity and planktonic community variability in the western arabian sea 1 uranium series radionuclides and organic biomarkers which represent major groups of planktonic organisms were measured in western arabian sea sediments that span the past 28 ka variability in the past strength of the southwest and northeast monsoons and its influence on primary productivity sea surface temperature sst and planktonic community structure were investigated the average alkenone derived sst for the last glacial period was 3 c lower than that measured for the holocene prior to the deglacial the lowest ssts coincide with the highest measured fluxes of organic biomarkers which represent primarily a planktonic suite of diatoms coccolithophorids dinoflagellates and zooplankton we propose that intensification of winter northeast monsoon winds during the last glacial period resulted in deep convective mixing cold ssts and enhanced primary productivity in contrast postdeglacial 17 ka ssts are warmer during times in which biomarker fluxes are high associated with this transition is a planktonic community structure change in which the ratio of the average cumulative flux of diatom biomarkers to the cumulative flux of coccolithophorid biomarkers is twice as high during the deglacial and holocene than the average ratio during the last glacial period we suggest that this temporal transition represents a shift from a winter northeast monsoon dominated pre 17 ka to a summer southwest monsoon dominated post 17 ka wind system

geochemical evidence for african dust inputs to soils of western atlantic islands barbados the bahamas and florida 1 we studied soils on high purity limestones of quaternary age on the western atlantic ocean islands of barbados the florida keys and the bahamas potential soil parent materials in this region external to the carbonate substrate include volcanic ash from the island of st vincent near barbados volcanic ash from the islands of dominica and st lucia somewhat farther from barbados the fine grained component of distal loess from the lower mississippi river valley and wind transported dust from africa these four parent materials can be differentiated using trace elements sc cr th and zr and rare earth elements that have minimal mobility in the soil forming environment barbados soils have compositions that indicate a complex derivation volcanic ash from the island of st vincent appears to have been the most important influence but african dust is a significant contributor and even mississippi river valley loess may be a very minor contributor to barbados soils soils on the florida keys and islands in the bahamas appear to have developed mostly from african dust but mississippi river valley loess may be a significant contributor our results indicate that inputs of african dust are more important to the genesis of soils on islands in the western atlantic ocean than previously supposed we hypothesize that african dust may also be a major contributor to soils on other islands of the caribbean and to soils in northern south america central america mexico and the southeastern united states dust inputs to subtropical and tropical soils in this region increase both nutrient holding capacity and nutrient status and thus may be critical in sustaining vegetation

southern ocean dust climate coupling over the past four million years dust plays a central part in ocean biogeochemical cycles by supplying iron and other essential micronutrients to regions where marine productivity is limited by the availability of iron martinez garcia et al present a marine record of dust and iron supply to the southern ocean during the past four million years the data derived from leaf waxes establish that previous records of dust flux from antarctic ice cores are broadly representative of a larger area importantly the dust and iron supply rose sharply 1 25 million years ago suggesting that increased dust supply may be a major influence on the more severe swings between the glacial and interglacial climate of the late pleistocene dust has the potential to modify global climate by influencing the radiative balance of the atmosphere and by supplying iron and other essential limiting micronutrients to the ocean1 2 indeed dust supply to the southern ocean increases during ice ages and iron fertilization of the subantarctic zone may have contributed up to 40 parts per million by volume p p m v of the decrease 80 100 p p m v in atmospheric carbon dioxide observed during late pleistocene glacial cycles3 4 5 6 7 so far however the magnitude of southern ocean dust deposition in earlier times and its role in the development and evolution of pleistocene glacial cycles have remained unclear here we report a high resolution record of dust and iron supply to the southern ocean over the past four million years derived from the analysis of marine sediments from odp site 1090 located in the atlantic sector of the subantarctic zone the close correspondence of our dust and iron deposition records with antarctic ice core reconstructions of dust flux covering the past 800 000 years refs 8 9 indicates that both of these archives record large scale deposition changes that should apply to most of the southern ocean validating previous interpretations of the ice core data the extension of the record beyond the interval covered by the antarctic ice cores reveals that in contrast to the relatively gradual intensification of glacial cycles over the past three million years southern ocean dust and iron flux rose sharply at the mid pleistocene climatic transition around 1 25 million years ago this finding complements previous observations over late pleistocene glacial cycles5 8 9 providing new evidence of a tight connection between high dust input to the southern ocean and the emergence of the deep glaciations that characterize the past one million years of earth history

dirtmap the geological record of dust atmospheric dust is an important feedback in the climate system potentially affecting the radiative balance and chemical composition of the atmosphere and providing nutrients to terrestrial and marine ecosystems yet the potential impact of dust on the climate system both in the anthropogenically disturbed future and the naturally varying past remains to be quantified the geologic record of dust provides the opportunity to test earth system models designed to simulate dust records of dust can be obtained from ice cores marine sediments and terrestrial loess deposits although rarely unequivocal these records document a variety of processes source transport and deposition in the dust cycle stored in each archive as changes in clay mineralogy isotopes grain size and concentration of terrigenous materials although the extraction of information from each type of archive is slightly different the basic controls on these dust indicators are the same changes in the dust flux and particle size might be controlled by a combination of a source area extent b dust emission efficiency wind speed and atmospheric transport c atmospheric residence time of dust and or d relative contributions of dry settling and rainout of dust similarly changes in mineralogy reflect a source area mineralogy and weathering and b shifts in atmospheric transport the combination of these geological data with process based forward modelling schemes in global earth system models provides an excellent means of achieving a comprehensive picture of the global pattern of dust accumulation rates their controlling mechanisms and how those mechanisms may vary regionally the dust indicators and records of terrestrial and marine palaeoenvironments dirtmap data base has been established to provide a global palaeoenvironmental data set that can be used to validate earth system model simulations of the dust cycle over the past 150 000 years

thorium derived dust fluxes to the tropical pacific ocean 58 ma abstract eolian dust in pelagic deep sea sediments can be used to reconstruct ancient wind patterns and paleoenvironmental response to climate change traditional methods to determine dust accumulation involve isolating the non dissolvable aluminosilicate minerals from deep sea sediments through a series of chemical leaches but cannot differentiate between minerals from eolian authigenic and volcanogenic sources other geochemical proxies such as sedimentary 232th and crustal 4he content have been used to construct high resolution records of atmospheric dust fluxes to the deep sea during the quaternary here we use sedimentary th content as a proxy for terrigenous material eolian dust in 58 myr old sediments from the shatsky rise odp site 1209 and compare our results with previous dust estimates generated using the traditional chemical extraction method and sedimentary 4hecrustal concentrations we find excellent agreement between th based dust estimates and those generated using the traditional method in addition our results show a correlation between sedimentary th and 4hecrustal content which suggests a source older than present day asian loess supplied dust to the central subtropical pacific ocean during the early paleogene

glacial interglacial variablity in the benguela upwelling system spatial distribution and budgets of organic carbon accumulation 1 modern sedimentary total organic carbon toc content as a proxy for surface water export production was mapped on the shelf and on the upper continental slope of the benguela upwelling system using 137 core tops shelf maxima in toc can be correlated with maxima in surface water productivity on the slope high toc contents are observed offshore from sites of strong modern upwelling estimates of modern toc mass accumulation rates mar show that approximately 85 of the total is accumulating on the shelf toc mar were calculated mapped and budgeted for the holocene and for the last glacial maximum lgm using 19 sediment cores from the continental slope during the lgm centers of deposition and production have migrated offshore with respect to their holocene positions toc accumulation on the continental slope was approximately 84 higher during the lgm than during the holocene possibly reflecting enhanced productivity the toc distribution patterns and sediment echo sounding data suggest that undercurrents strongly influence the sedimentation off namibia winnowing and focusing result in great lateral heterogeneity of sedimentation rates and sediment properties individual cores therefore do not necessarily reflect general changes in export production these results highlight the need for detailed regional studies based on a large number of sediment cores for highly heterogeneous high productivity areas in order to derive general statements on total fluxes

tracing dust input to the global ocean using thorium isotopes in marine sediments thoromap continental dust input into the ocean atmosphere system has significant ramifications for biogeochemical cycles and global climate yet direct observations of dust deposition in the ocean remain scarce the long lived isotope thorium 232 232th is greatly enriched in upper continental crust compared to oceanic crust and mid ocean ridge basalt like volcanogenic material in open ocean sediments away from fluvial and ice rafted sources of continental material 232th is often assumed to be of predominantly eolian origin in conjunction with flux normalization based on the particle reactive radioisotope thorium 230 230th 232th measurements in marine sediments are a promising proxy for dust accumulation in the modern and past ocean here we present thoromap a new global data compilation of 230th normalized fluxes of 232th after careful screening we derive dust deposition estimates in the global ocean averaged for the late holocene 0 4 ka and the last glacial maximum lgm 19 23 ka thoromap is compared with dust deposition estimates derived from the community climate system model ccsm3 and ccsm4 two coupled atmosphere land ocean and sea ice models model data correlation factors are 0 63 ccsm3 and 0 59 ccsm4 in the late holocene and 0 82 ccsm3 and 0 83 ccsm4 in the lgm thoromap is the first compilation that is built on a single specific proxy for dust and that exclusively uses flux normalisation to derive dust deposition rates

planktic foraminiferal sedimentation and the marine calcite budget 1 the vertical flux and sedimentation rate of planktic foraminiferal tests are quantified and a global planktic foraminiferal cac0 3 budget is presented test and calcite flux rates are calculated according to the distribution of species obtained from multinet and sediment trap samples modern planktic foraminiferal population dynamics are discussed as a prerequisite for the quantification of the calcite budget highlighting the importance of ecological autecological e g reproduction and biogeochemical conditions that determine the presence or absence of species to complete the open marine particulate caco 3 inventory the contribution of coccolithophores pteropods and calcareous dinophytes is discussed based on the studied regions the global planktic foraminiferal calcite flux rate at 100 m depth amounts to 1 3 3 2 gt yr 1 equivalent to 23 56 of the total open marine caco 3 flux the preservation of tests varies on a regional and temporal scale and is affected by local hydrography and dissolution during most of the year off peak periods many tests dissolve above 700 m water depth while settling through the water column with on average only 1 3 of the initially exported caco 3 reaching the deep seafloor pulsed flux events mass dumps of fast settling particles yield a major contribution of tests to the formation of deep sea sediments on average 25 of the initially produced planktic foraminiferal test cac0 3 settles on the seafloor the total planktic foraminiferal contribution of caco 3 to global surface sediments amounts to 0 36 0 88 gt yr 1 32 80 of the total deep marine calcite budget

links between iron supply marine productivity sea surface temperature and co2 over the last 1 1 ma received 3 july 2008 revised 9 october 2008 accepted 27 october 2008 published 14 february 2009 1 paleoclimatic reconstructions have provided a unique data set to test the sensitivity of climate system to changes in atmospheric co2 concentrations however the mechanisms behind glacial interglacial g ig variations in atmospheric co2 concentrations observed in the antarctic ice cores are still not fully understood here we present a new multiproxy data set of sea surface temperatures sst dust and iron supply and marine export productivity from the marine sediment core ps2489 2 odp site 1090 located in the subantarctic atlantic that allow us to evaluate various hypotheses on the role of the southern ocean so in modulating atmospheric co2 concentrations back to 1 1 ma we show that antarctic atmospheric temperatures are closely linked to changes in so surface temperatures over the last 800 ka and use this to synchronize the timescales of our marine and the european project for ice coring in antarctica epica dome c edc records the close correlation observed between iron inputs and marine export production over the entire interval implies that the process of iron fertilization of marine biota has been a recurrent process operating in the subantarctic region over the g ig cycles of the last 1 1 ma however our data suggest that marine productivity can only explain a fraction of atmospheric co2 changes up to around 40 50 ppmv occurring at glacial maxima in each glacial stage in this sense the good correlation of our sst record to the edc temperature reconstruction suggests that the initial glacial co2 decrease as well as the change in the amplitude of the co2 cycles observed around 400 ka was most likely driven by physical processes possibly related to changes in antarctic sea ice extent surface water stratification and westerly winds position

glacial to interglacial changes in carbonate and clay sedimentation in the atlantic ocean estimated from 230th measurements abstract the cause of the climatically controlled fluctuations in the carbonate content of deep sea sediments remains the subject of uncertainty and debate three variables are involved supply of biogenic carbonate loss by dissolution and dilution by non carbonate phases it is suggested that 230 th which is produced in the ocean at a constant rate provides a reliable reference for measuring variations in rate of sedimentation on a regional scale results of a preliminary analysis based on published data indicate that for depths at and above the lysocline the carbonate fluctuations observed in cores from the north atlantic ocean are due primarily to variations in the terrigenous clay input which was 2 5 times higher during glacials than during interglacials carbonate deposition appears to have been somewhat reduced during glacials but probably not by more than a factor of 2 from published 230 th 232 th profiles it appears that the south atlantic ocean also received increased inputs of terrigenous clay during glacial periods

radiocarbon based chronology for the 18o 16o record for the last deglaciation a radiocarbon calibrated box model for today s ocean suggests that a lag of about 1750 years should exist between the arrival of the midpoint of the deglaciation 18o signal in the deep atlantic ocean and its arrival in the deep pacific ocean in order to assess the actual lag we have carried out accelerator radiocarbon measurements on two cores from the atlantic ocean and one core from the pacific ocean although the results are not definitive there is a suggestion that the actual time lag was about 1000 years

planktonic foraminifera in the western north pacific during the past 150 000 years comparison of modern and fossil assemblages abstract planktonic foraminiferal abundance variations in 186 deep sea piston core tops from the western north pacific were used to create a calibration set to characterize the present day kuroshio gyre system q mode factor analysis helped identify six faunal assemblages 93 variance related to modern water masses two tropical assemblages differing in relative dissolution three assemblages representing subtropical subpolar and transitional conditions and a gyre margin assemblage lying between the kuroshio current and the mainland of asia multivariate regression produced transfer functions relating observed summer august and winter february sea surface temperatures sst to the assemblages with standard errors of estimate of 1 5 c and 2 5 c respectively data from 24 piston cores was used to interpret variations of the kuroshio gyre system during the past 150 000 yr stratigraphic control is based on oxygen isotopic measurements the extinction of pink pigmented globigerinoides ruber at 120 000 b p coiling direction changes in neogloboquadrina pachyderma north of 30 n and dissolution variations between resistant and fragile taxa major dynamic changes in the circulation of the kuroshio gyre occurred during the last two glacial maxima at 15 20 000 b p isotopic stage 2 and at 140 150 000 b p isotopic stage 6 these intervals are characterized by 1 lowered sea levels which reduced flow into the sea of japan and sea of okh okhotsk 2 advance of the polar front from its modern position at about 42 n to 35 38 n 3 southward penetration of the oyashio current along the pacific coast of japan to tokyo 4 2 3 c lowered sst in tropical areas little or no change in subtropical areas and a 4 6 c decrease in transitional areas and 5 an overall decrease in carbonate dissolution relative to interglacial stages the maximum interglacial at 120 000 b p isotopic substage 5e shows a retreat of the polar front north of its modern position and an overall relative increase in interglacial carbonate dissolution that does not become severe until substage 5d

paleoclimate history of galapagos surface waters over the last 135 000 yr abstract records of planktonic and benthic foraminiferal 18 o and planktonic mg ca from core tr163 22 just northwest of the galapagos islands reveal a detailed 250 450 year resolution climate history of the region over the last 135 thousand years kyr sea surface temperatures ssts reconstructed from g ruber mg ca averaged 24 3 0 4 c during the holocene 22 6 0 6 c during marine isotope stage mis 2 3 and 4 and 26 0 0 9 c during mis 5e changes in sst lead changes in both planktonic and benthic 18 o by an average 3 kyr suggesting that sst changes in this region predated continental ice volume changes changes in sst display clear millennial scale variability especially in marine isotope stage 3 with behavior somewhat similar to antarctic proxy air temperature and south pacific sst records removal of the temperature component from the planktonic 18 o record demonstrates that glacial interglacial 18 o water changes at this site were 1 0 0 2 similar to estimates for mean ocean shifts implying that salinity changes due to regional hydrological variation between the last glacial maximum and holocene in the galapagos region were minimal comparison between the tr163 22 sst record and an sst record from core tr163 19 north of the equatorial front reveals a largely similar broad scale climate history suggesting that changes in the galapagos region were caused by large scale forcing rather than by local or regional dynamical changes changes in atmospheric greenhouse forcing are the most plausible explanation for the observed large scale climate changes in the eastern equatorial pacific

neogene and quaternary ignimbrites in the area of arequipa southern peru stratigraphical and petrological correlations abstract this study focuses on the correlation of four newly identified rhyolitic ignimbrites located around arequipa which were previously described as a single ignimbrite sheet 1 the rio chili ignimbrite ca 13 33 ma crops out in the rio chili canyon and consists of a cooling unit of non welded to partially welded massive crystal rich lapilli tuff this ignimbrite represents the base of the neogene ignimbrite succession in the arequipa area and may be stratigraphically equivalent to the 14 13 ma huaylillas ignimbrites in southern peru 2 the second voluminous 20 km3 and widespread la joya ignimbrite sheet ca 4 87 ma filled the arequipa depression its probable source is now buried underneath the chachani volcanic complex the la joya ignimbrite covers both the arequipa batholith toward the rio vitor piedmont and also part of the altiplano to the east and north of the chachani complex 3 the arequipa airport ignimbrite aai sheet ca 1 6 ma 18 km3 the third and latest infill of the arequipa basin consists of a lower white columnar jointed massive lapilli tuff indurated by vapor phase recrystallization and is overlain by an upper pink lithic rich non welded massive lapilli tuff the source of this ignimbrite is also buried underneath the chachani complex as indicated by anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility measurements and component lithology 4 the yura non welded pumice flow deposits ca 1 02 ma 1 5 km3 are restricted to the northern and western flanks of the chachani complex and may correlate with tuffs of the capillune formation on the altiplano all ignimbrites are high k calc alkaline to alkaline rhyolites which contain variable amounts of plagioclase biotite quartz sanidine and fe ti oxides the modal composition of mineral phases and chemistry of amphiboles and biotites are useful for distinguishing the ignimbrites specific geochemical fingerprints such as sr y rb ba cs ree and sr isotopes were effective discriminator elements magmatic differentiation crustal residence time and contamination and source melting processes are discussed in order to explain compositional variations the older la joya ignimbrite and rio chili ignimbrite reflect initial wetter crustal melts closer to granite composition whereas with time the younger arequipa airport ignimbrite and yura tuffs initial melts are slightly less evolved and dryer due to more extensive crustal melting the voluminous 40 km3 neogene ignimbrites of the arequipa area were produced by three major explosive volcanic pulses in the central volcanic zone of southern peru whose genetic relation with tectonic uplift and crustal thickening of the andean cordillera are still a matter of debate

correction to hydrographic changes of the southern ocean southeast indian sector over the last 230 kyr in the paper hydrographic hanges of the southern ocean southeast indian sector over the last 230 kyr by lament labeyrie monique labracherie nabila gorfti jean jacques pichon maryline vautravers maurice arnold jean claude duplessy marfine pateme elizabeth michel josette duprat michelle caralp and jean louis tmon paleoceanography 11 1 57 76 1996 the rightmost colunto phases in kiloyears in table 5 is wrong the results of the phase calculation in radian and degree were divided by a wrong constant for the equivalence in kiloyears transformation from radian to kiloyear should be done by the following formula phase kyr phase rad x period kyr 2x3 1416 all calculations were done with the obliquity period 43 kyr instead 9f using the values corresponding to the three spectral bands 106 43 and 21 kyr the corrected table 5 appears on the next page the error was detected after printing the corresponding discussion on page 69 is modified as follows in the second paragraph on page 69 the fourth sentence should read ssst leads the benthic foraminiferal

sea surface temperature variability during the last glacial interglacial cycle assessing the magnitude and pattern of climate change in the north atlantic abstract sea surface temperature and salinity estimates reconstructed using planktonic foraminiferal abundance and 18o records from core su90 03 40 n 32 w 2475 m water depth reveal large climatic fluctuations linked to major instabilities in northern hemisphere ice sheets over the last 150 000 years episodes of enhanced ice rafted detritus ird input were accompanied by discrete temperature minima representing coolings of between 4 and 8 c and reductions in surface salinity of up to 2 5 3 5 several additional cooling episodes of a similar magnitude were documented during intervals of low ird input that appear to be synchronous within the limits of dating with ice rafting events spatially confined to higher latitudes accelerator mass spectrometer 14c dates for heinrich events h1 14 2 ka h2 21 4 ka h3 26 7 ka h4 34 8 ka h5 47 2 ka obtained from core su90 03 agree well with other published age estimates and suggest a contemporaneous pattern of climate change throughout the north atlantic during the last glacial period this interpretation is supported by a comparison of ird and palaeotemperature records from dsdp site 609 and core su90 03 which clearly shows that the major climatic fluctuations identified at high latitudes were transmitted toward the subtropics however 14c dates suggest that ice rafting episodes may be diachronous to some extent the northward migration of the polar front after the h1 event at 40 n in the mid atlantic occurred at 14 ka approximately 500 years earlier than along the portuguese margin where the southerly advection of polar waters persisted within eastern boundary current system

terrigenous fe input and biogenic sedimentation in the glacial and interglacial equatorial pacific ocean many ocean regions important to the global carbon budget including the equatorial pacific ocean have low chlorophyll concentrations despite high levels of conventional nutrients iron may instead be the limiting nutrient and elevated input of terrigenous fe during windy glacial episodes has been hypothesized to stimulate oceanic productivity through time and thus regulate the oceanic and atmospheric co2 balance to test whether particulate fe input is related to the accumulation of biogenic matter in one important low chlorophyll high nutrient area that is the equatorial pacific ocean we present results from a suite of sediment cores that collectively record biogenic deposition through the last six glacial interglacial cycles 600 000 years our data set includes new chemical data on total fe terrigenous and biogenic components in three cores as well as previously published mineralogic records of coljan input to the region chemical spectral and stratigraphic analysis indicates that 1 terrigenous input to the region shows no consistent pattern of either glacial or interglacial maxima 2 the accumulation of particulate fe is closely related to the accumulation of terrigenous matter linear r 2 0 81 0 98 3 there are no coherent spectral relationships between fe input and glacial periodicity i e 5180 in any of the orbital frequency bands 4 the linear and cross spectral correlations between fe or coljan input and caco3 concentration are most commonly the strongest observed relationships between fe and any biogenic component yet indicate a largely inverse pattern with higher fe being associated with low caco3 5 there is no consistent linear r 2 correlation or spectral coherence between the accumulation of fe and that of caco3 corg or opal thus in total there is no relationship between terrigenous fe input and sedimentary sequestering of carbon additionally although we cannot specifically address the potential for changes in solubility of the terrigenous fraction that may be driven by a terrigenous compositional change the fe ti ratio which monitors first order mineralogic changes records only slight variations that also are linearly and spectrally unrelated to glacial periodicity the bulk fe flux and the accumulation of any biogenic component finally we find that the paleoceanographic flux of fe is several order of magnitudes larger than modem observations of coljan fe input suggesting that the long term importance of fe input by dust storms which deliver fe on the order of the sedimentary burial may be underestimated the removal of particulate terrigenous fe from the recently discovered source within the equatorial undercurrent however remains unquanfified and may also prove significant

a uniform isotopic and chemical signature of dust exported from patagonia rock sources and occurrence in southern environments patagonia is considered to be the most important source of dust from south america that is deposited in surrounding areas and we present here a systematic sr and nd isotopic study of sediment currently being exported eolian and suspended riverine sediments from patagonia have a homogeneous chemical and isotopic composition that results from the mixing of by products from explosive andean volcanism derived from the extensive jurassic silicic province of chon aike and pyroclastic materials from the basic to intermediate southern andean quaternary arc which are easily denudated and dispersed the main andean uplift and the glaciations that began in the late tertiary account for the extensive distribution of these sediments in the extra andean region the present geochemical signature of patagonian sediments was produced during the pleistocene along with the onset of the southern andean explosive arc volcanism previously published compositions of sediments from other southern south american source regions assumed to be representative of patagonia are distinct from our data considering the alleged importance of patagonia as a dust source for different depositional environments in southern latitudes it is surprising to verify that the chemical and isotopic signatures of patagonian sourced sediments are different from those of sediments from the southern ocean the pampean region or the antarctic ice sediments from these areas have a crustal like geochemical signature reflecting a mixed origin with sediment from other southern south american sources whereas patagonian sediments likely represent the basic to intermediate end member composition

comment on do geochemical estimates of sediment focusing pass the sediment test in the equatorial pacific by m lyle et al accurately estimating the vertical flux of material reaching the seafloor from the overlying surface waters is essential for the paleoceanographic reconstruction of a wide variety of oceanic processes two approaches are currently being used one consists of estimating mass accumulation rates mar between dated horizons as the product of linear sedimentation rates sediment dry bulk densities and concentrations one pitfall with this approach is that sediments can be redistributed on the seafloor by bottom currents and their accumulation may not necessarily reflect the true vertical rain rate originating from the overlying water column to address this problem the method of 230th normalization was developed bacon 1984 this method is based on the assumption that the rapid scavenging of 230th produced in the water column by decay of dissolved uranium results in its flux to the seafloor always being close to its known rate of production to the extent that this assumption is correct scavenged 230th can be used as a reference to estimate the settling flux of other sedimentary constituents and to correct for sediment redistribution on the seafloor henderson and anderson 2003 francois et al 2004

glacial interglacial variability in the delivery of dust to the central equatorial pacific ocean abstract fluxes of continental mineral aerosols dust were greater during glacial periods than during interglacials throughout most regions of the earth the equatorial pacific ocean was a possible exception to this pattern in that previous studies have reported either greater dust fluxes during interglacials or no consistent glacial interglacial pattern of dust flux we have applied the 230th normalization technique to derive five new records of dust flux from central equatorial pacific ocean sediments in contrast to previous studies which relied on stratigraphic accumulation rates the 230th normalization technique produces internally consistent results revealing fluxes to this region of continental lithogenic material that were positively correlated with global ice volume throughout the past 300 000 yr maximum glacial fluxes of continental mineral aerosols exceed minimum interglacial fluxes by about a factor of 2 similar to changes found elsewhere at low and mid latitudes this amplitude of variability is substantially smaller than that seen in some recent models and these observations provide a calibration point for future model development

particle sorting during sediment redistribution processes and the effect on 230th normalized mass accumulation rates the 230th method of determining mass accumulation rates mars assumes that little to no fractionation occurs during sediment redistribution processes at the seafloor we examine 230th inventories in radiocarbon dated multicore sediments from paired winnowed and focused sites at cocos and carnegie ridges panama basin radiocarbon derived sand mars which likely represent the vertical rain of particles poorly transported by bottom currents are similar at each of the paired sites but are different using 230th normalization 230th normalized mars are about 60 lower at focused sites and likely underestimate vertical mars while the reverse is true for winnowed sites we hypothesize that size fractionation occurs most frequently at lower current velocities resulting in the coarse fraction being left behind and primarily the fine 230th rich grains being transported downslope 230th normalization works well for recording fine grained detrital and opal but not coarse grained carbonate fluxes in regions that have undergone sediment redistribution

opal burial in the equatorial atlantic ocean over the last 30 ka implications for glacial interglacial changes in the ocean silicon cycle 1 the silicic acid leakage hypothesis salh suggests that during glacial periods excess silicic acid was transported from the southern ocean to lower latitudes which favored diatom production over coccolithophorid production and caused a drawdown of atmospheric co2 downcore records of 230th normalized opal fluxes and 231pa 230th ratios from seven equatorial atlantic cores were used to reconstruct diatom productivity over the past 30 ka where a is years and to test the salh downcore records of 231pa 230th ratios and opal fluxes are highly correlated suggesting that they constitute a production based record of opal flux opal flux records support the salh in that glacial opal burial exceeded holocene burial by 1 8 gt opal ka in the area 0 40 w and 5 n 5 s earlier results from the eastern equatorial pacific ocean showed the opposite trend with greater holocene than glacial opal burial but approximately the same magnitude of difference between glacial and interglacial opal burial we suggest four nonexclusive scenarios to explain the data from both basins 1 increased upwelling in the equatorial atlantic and el nino like conditions suppressing upwelling in the eastern equatorial pacific altered the overall nutrient supply to both basins 2 si leaked from the southern ocean because of fe fertilization but was prevented from upwelling in the equatorial pacific because of el nino like conditions during the lgm 3 si leaked from the southern ocean because diatom productivity was limited by increased sea ice extent and was again prevented from upwelling in the equatorial pacific or 4 changes in ocean circulation related to the decreased input of agulhas water to the glacial south atlantic provided excess dissolved si to the equatorial atlantic ocean a deglacial opal pulse is seen in both the atlantic and pacific oceans all four scenarios and the presence of the common deglacial opal pulse suggest a common driver in the southern ocean

sediment focusing in the panama basin eastern equatorial pacific ocean abstract age model derived sediment mass accumulation rates mars are consistently higher than 230th normalized mars in the equatorial pacific ocean during the past 25 ka the offset being highest in the panama basin suggests a significant role for deep sea sediment redistribution i e sediment focusing in this region here we test the hypothesis that downslope transport of sediments from topographically high regions that surround the panama basin is the cause of higher than expected xs230th inventories over the past 25 ka in the deeper parts of the basin we find little difference in xs230th inventories between the highest and lowest reaches of the basin furthermore there is no correlation between xs230th derived sediment focusing factors and water depth which suggests that the topographic highs do not serve as a source of xs230th a spatial analysis suggests that there may be an enhanced scavenging effect on xs230th concentrations in sediment closest to the equator where productivity is the highest although further data is necessary to corroborate this at the equator xs230th derived focusing factors are high and range from about 1 to 5 during the holocene and about 1 to 11 during the last glacial in contrast non equatorial cores show a smaller range in variability from about 0 7 to 2 8 during the holocene and from 0 7 to 3 6 during the last glacial based on 232th flux measurements we hypothesize that the location at which eolian detrital fluxes surpass the riverine detrital fluxes is approximately 300 km from the margin while riverine fluxes from coastal margins were higher during the holocene eolian fluxes were higher during the last glacial

sahel megadroughts triggered by glacial slowdowns of atlantic meridional overturning 1 the influence of the large scale ocean circulation on sahel rainfall is elusive because of the shortness of the observational record we reconstructed the history of eolian and fluvial sedimentation on the continental slope off senegal during the past 57 000 years our data show that abrupt onsets of arid conditions in the west african sahel were linked to cold north atlantic sea surface temperatures during times of reduced meridional overturning circulation associated with heinrich stadials climate modeling suggests that this drying is induced by a southward shift of the west african monsoon trough in conjunction with an intensification and southward expansion of the midtropospheric african easterly jet

strength and geometry of the glacial atlantic meridional overturning circulation during the last glacial maximum the pattern of atlantic meridional overturning circulation was different from today a combination of sediment chemistry and a scavenging model suggests that the glacial circulation was shallower and at least as vigorous as today