Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T22:55:06.776Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Distribution of Quartz in Late Quaternary Atlantic Sediments in Relation to Climate*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Venkatarathnam Kolla ,
Pierre E. Biscaye  and
Adele F. Hanley
Venkatarathnam Kolla
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964 USA
Pierre E. Biscaye
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964 USA
Adele F. Hanley
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The distribution of quartz in the surface sediments of the Atlantic Ocean reflects derivation from continents by means of rivers, wind, ice, and coastal erosion. Enrichment of quartz thus supplied has occurred in some deep basins of especially the southern high latitudes from winnowing of finegrained clays by bottom currents. Although similar modes of quartz transport may have operated both during the Holocene and the last glacial maximum (18,000 yr B.P.), significant differences in the intensity of transport and in the locii of deposition, which are attributable to climatic variations during these times, exist in some areas of the Atlantic. In Holocene sediments of the eastern equatorial Atlantic, a band of high percent quartz exists directly off the present Saharan Desert and Sahel region and reflects the trade-wind transport of dusts from these arid and semiarid regions. During the last glacial maximum (18,000 yr B.P.), this high quartz band expanded southward by about 8° of latitude. This expansion was caused not only by the southward expansion of aridity and desert dunes but also by the southward migration of the northerly belt of trade winds during the last glaciation. Relatively high abundances and accumulation rates of quartz during the last glaciation suggest higher intensities of trade winds during that time compared to the Holocene. In the North Atlantic, the abundances of quartz in Holocene sediments are high adjacent to Greenland-Iceland and in the areas off Newfoundland-Labrador, and gradually decrease toward the central areas. The polar front and limit of sea-ice melting are at present confined to the northern part of the North Atlantic. The ice-rafting of quartz grains is, therefore, effective in the areas adjacent to Greenland and to some extent off Labrador causing high abundances in these areas. In contrast to this, during the last glaciation, the quartz abundances and accumulation rates are high in the central areas of North Atlantic around 45°N and decrease toward Greenland-Newfoundland. The migration of the polar front to as far south as 45°N and the consequent southward migration of sea-ice melting and ice-rafting during the last glaciation apparently caused this change in distribution. In addition to ice-rafting at present, wave or current reworking of relict glacial-marine detritus may have caused the high abundance of quartz in the surface sediments off Newfoundland-Labrador. In 18,000 yr B.P. sediments of the Norwegian Sea, the area of high percent quartz (>10%) is more extensive than that in Holocene sediments. This reflects the greater influence of ice-rafting or glacier activity in the sediment dispersal in the Norwegian Sea during the last glacial times.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , March 1979 , pp. 261 - 277
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory Contribution No. 2768.

References

Alyea, F.N., (1972) Numerical Simulation of Ice Age Paleoclimate. Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Paper 193.Google Scholar
Beltagy, A.I., Chester, R., Padgham, R.C., (1972). The particle-size distribution of quartz in some North Atlantic deep-sea sediments. Marine Geology. 13, 297-310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biscaye, P.E., (1965). Mineralogy and sedimentation of recent deep-sea clay in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas and oceans. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 76, 803-832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biscaye, P.E., Chesselet, R., Prospero, J.M., (1974). RbSr, 87Sr/87Sr isotope system as an index of provenance of continental dusts in the open Atlantic Ocean. Journal Recherches Atmospheriques. 8, 819-829.Google Scholar
Biscaye, P.E., Eittreim, S.L., (1977). Suspended particulate loads and transport in the nepheloid layer of the abyssal Atlantic Ocean. Marine Geology. 23, 155-172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonatti, E., Gartner, S. Jr., (1973). Caribbean climate during Pleistocene ice ages. Nature. 244, 563-565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowles, F.A., (1975). Paleoclimatic significance of quartz/illite variations in cores from the eastern equatorial North Atlantic. Quaternary Research. 5, 225-235.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A., Murray, T.J., Climates of Hunger, Mankind and the World's Changing Weather. Univ. of Wisconsin Press, Madison. Google Scholar
Carlson, T.N., Prospero, J.M., (1972). The largescale movement of Saharan air outbreaks over the northern Equatorial Atlantic. Journal of Applied Meteorology. 11, 283-297.Google Scholar
Chester, R., Johnson, L.R., (1971). Atmospheric dusts collected off the Atlantic coast of North Africa and Iberian Peninsula. Marine Geology. 11, 251-260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chester, R., Elderfield, H., Griffin, J.J., (1971). Dust transported in the northeast and southeast trade winds in the Atlantic Ocean. Science. 233, 474-476.Google ScholarPubMed
Chester, R., Elderfield, H., Griffin, J.J., Johnson, L.R., Padgham, R.C., (1972). Aeolin dust along the eastern margin of the Atlantic Ocean. Marine Geology. 13, 91-105.Google Scholar
1976. CLIMAP Project Members. The surface of the ice-age earth. Science. 191, 1131-1137.Google Scholar
Cline, R.M., Hays, J.D., (1976). Investigations of Late Quaternary Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. Memoir 145. The Geological Society of America, Inc, Boulder, Colo. Google Scholar
Conolly, J.R., Needham, H.D., Heezen, B.C., (1967). Late Pleistocene and Holocene sedimentation in the Laurentian Channel. Journal of Geology. 75, 131-147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Damuth, J.E., (1977). Late Quaternary sedimentation in the western Atlantic. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 88, 695-710.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Damuth, J.E., Fairbridge, R.W., (1970). Equatorial Atlantic deep-sea arkosic sands and ice-age aridity in tropical South America. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 81, 189-206.Google Scholar
Delaney, A.C., Delaney, A.C., Parkin, D.W., Griffin, J.J., Goldberg, E.D., Reimann, B.E.F., (1967). Airborne dust collected at Barbados. Geochemica et Cosmochimica Acta. 31, 885-909.Google Scholar
Diester-Haass, L., (1976). Late Quaternary climatic variations in Northwest Africa deduced from east Atlantic sediment cores. Quaternary Research. 6, 299-314.Google Scholar
Eittreim, S.L., Thorndike, E., Sullivan, L., (1976). Turbidity distribution in the Atlantic Ocean. Deep-Sea Research. 23, 1115-1127.Google Scholar
Ellis, D.B., (1972). Holocene Sediments of the South Atlantic Ocean: The Calcite Compensation Depth and Concentration of Calcite, Opal and Quartz. Unpublished M.S. thesis. Oregon State University. Google Scholar
Ellis, D.B., Moore, T.C. Jr., (1973). Calcium Carbonate, opal, and quartz in Holocene pelagic sediments and the calcite compensation level in the South Atlantic Ocean. Journal of Marine Research. 31, 210-227.Google Scholar
Ericson, D.G., Ewing, M., Wollin, G., Heezen, B.C., (1961). Atlantic deep-sea sediment cores. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 72, 193-286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ewing, M., Eittreim, S.L., Ewing, J., Le Pichon, X., (1971). Sediment transport and distribution in the Argentine Basin. 3. Nepheloid layer and processes of sedimentation. Ahrens, L.H., Press, F., Runcan, S.K., Urey, H.C., Physics and Chemistry of the Earth. Vol. 8, 49-77.Google Scholar
Fairbridge, R.W., (1964). African ice-age aridity. Nairn, E.M., Problems in Paleoclimatology. Wiley, New York, 356-363.Google Scholar
Folger, D.W., (1969). Wind transport of land-derived mineral, biogenic and industrial matter over the North Atlantic. Deep-Sea Research. 17, 337-352.Google Scholar
Game, P.M., (1964). Observations on a dust fall in the eastern Atlantic, February 1962. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology. 34, 355-359.Google Scholar
Gardener, J.193., (1973). The Eastern Equatorial Atlantic Sedimentation, Faunal, and Sea-Surface Temperature Responses to Global Climatic Changes over the Past 200,000 Years. Doctoral thesis. Columbia University, New York. Google Scholar
Gates, W.L., 1976a. Modelling the ice-age climate. Science. 191, 1138-1144.Google Scholar
Gates, W.L., 1976b. The numerical simulation of ice-age climate with a global general circulation model. Journal of Atmospheric Sciences. 33, 1844-1873.Google Scholar
Glennie, K.W., (1970) Desert Sedimentary Environments. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Developments in Sedimentology 14.Google Scholar
Goldberg, E.D., Griffin, J.J., (1964). Sedimentation rates and mineralogy in the South Atlantic. Journal of Geophysical Research. 69, 4293-4309.Google Scholar
Heezen, B.C., Hollister, C.D., (1971) The Face of the Deep. Oxford Univ. Press, New York. Google Scholar
Holtedahl, H., (1959). Geology and paleontology of Norwegian Sea bottom cores. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology. 29, 16-29.Google Scholar
Johnson, D.A., McDowell, S.E., Sullivan, L.G., Biscaye, P.E., (1976). Abyssal hydrography, nephelometry, currents, and benthic boundary layer structure in the Vema Channel. Journal of Geophysical Research. 81, 5771-5786.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kellogg, T.B., (1976). Late Quaternary climatic changes: Evidence from deep-sea cores of Norwegian and Greenland Seas. Cline, R.M., Hays, J.D., Investigations of Late Quaternary Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. Memoir 145. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colo, 77-110.Google Scholar
Krinsley, D., Biscaye, P.E., Turekian, K.K., (1975). Argentine Basin sediment sources as indicated by quartz surface textures. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology. 43, 251-257.Google Scholar
Lepple, F.K., (1975). Eolian dust over the North Atlantic Ocean. Doctoral thesis submitted to the University of Delaware. .Google Scholar
Manabi, S., Halloway, J.L. Jr., (1975). The seasonal variation of the hydrologic cycle as simulated by a global model of the atmosphere. Journal of Geophysical Research. 80, 1617-1649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manabi, S., Hahn, D.G., (1977). Simulation of the tropical climate of an ice age. Journal of Geophysical Research. 82, 3889-3911.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parmenter, C., Folger, D.W., (1974). Aeolian biogenic detritus in deep-sea sediments: a possible index of equatorial ice-age aridity. Science. 185, 695-698.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkin, D.W., (1974). Trade winds during glacial cycles. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A. 337, 73-100.Google Scholar
Parkin, D.W., Shackelton, N.J., (1973). Trade wind and temperature correlations down a deep-sea core off the Sahara Coast. Nature. 245, 455-457.Google Scholar
Parkin, D.W., Padgham, R.C., (1975). Further studies on trade winds during the glacial cycles. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A. 346, 245-260.Google Scholar
Prospero, J.M., Carlson, T.N., (1972). Vertical and areal distribution of Saharan dust over the western equatorial North Atlantic Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research. 77, 5255-5265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prospero, J.M., Bonatti, E., Schubert, C., Carlson, T.N., (1970). Dust in the Caribbean atmosphere traced to an African dust storm. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 9, 287-293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prospero, J.M., Nees, R.T., (1977). Dust concentration in the atmosphere of the equatorial North Atlantic: possible relationship to the Sahelian drought. Science. 196, 1196-1198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radczewski, O.E., (1939). Aeolian deposits in marine sediments. Trask, P.D., Recent Marine Sediments. Dover, 496-502.Google Scholar
Riley, J.P., Chester, R., (1971) Introduction to Marine Chemistry. Academic Press, London/New York. Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F., 1977a. North Atlantic ice-rafting; A major change at 75,000 years before the present. Science. 196, 1208-1211.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F., 1977b. Late Quaternary deposition of ice-rafted sand in the sub-polar North Atlantic (40°N–65°N). Geological Society of America Bulletin. 88, 1813-1827.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F., Bowles, F.A., (1976). Early interglacial bottom current sedimentation on the Reykjanes Ridge. Marine Geology. 21, 191-210.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F., McIntyre, A., (1976). Northeast Atlantic paleoclimatic changes over the last 600,000 years. Cline, R.M., Hays, J.D., Investigation of Late Quaternary Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. Memoir 145. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colo, 111-147.Google Scholar
Saito, I., Burckle, L.H., Hays, J.D., (1974). Implications of some pre-Quaternary sediment cores and dredgings. Hay, W.W., Studies in Paleoceanography. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Special Publication No. 20. 6-36.Google Scholar
Saltzman, B., Venekar, A.D., (1975). A solution for the northern hemisphere climatic zonation during a glacial maximum. Quaternary Research. 5, 307-320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarnthein, M., (1978). Sand deser's during glacial maximum and climatic optimum. Nature. 272, 43-46.Google Scholar
Sarnthein, M., Walger, E., (1974). Der äolische Sandstrom aus der West-Sahara zur Atlantik Küste. Geologische Rundschau. 63, 1065-1087.Google Scholar
Sarnthein, M., Diester-Haass, L., (1977). Eoliansand turbidites. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology. 47, 868-890.Google Scholar
Savoie, D.L., Prospero, J.M., (1977). Aerosol concentration statistics for the northern tropical Atlantic. Journal of Geophysical Research. 37, 5954-5964.Google Scholar
Till, R., Spears, D.A., (1969). The determination of quartz in sedimentary rocks using an x-ray diffraction method. Clays and Clay Minerals. 17, 323-327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, J., Barry, R.G., Washington, W.M., (1974). Simulation of the atmospheric circulation using the NCAR Global circulation model with ice age boundary conditions. Journal of Applied Meteorology. 13, 305-317.Google Scholar
Williams, M.A.J., (1975). Late Pleistocene tropical aridity synthronous in both hemispheres?. Nature. 253, 617-618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Windom, H.L., (1975). Eolian contributions to marine sediments. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology. 45, 520-529.Google Scholar
Young, R.A., Hollister, C.D., (1974). Quaternary sedimentation on the northwest African continental rise. Journal of Geology. 82, 675-689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, H.B., (1972). Sediments of the New England continental rise. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 83, 3709-3724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar