Open AccessA 36 kyr geochemical record from the Sea of Japan of organic matter flux variations and changes in intermediate water oxygen concentrations
Author(s) -
Crusius John,
Pedersen Thomas F.,
Calvert Stephen E.,
Cowie Gregory L.,
Oba Tadamichi
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
paleoceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1944-9186
pISSN - 0883-8305
DOI - 10.1029/1998pa900023
Subject(s) - geology , upwelling , oceanography , water column , oxygen minimum zone , carbonate , glacial period , sedimentary rock , seafloor spreading , last glacial maximum , stratification (seeds) , organic matter , deposition (geology) , monsoon , bottom water , flux (metallurgy) , geochemistry , paleontology , holocene , sediment , chemistry , organic chemistry , seed dormancy , materials science , germination , botany , dormancy , metallurgy , biology
Intervals of organic C‐ and carbonate‐rich laminated sediments occur in the Sea of Japan with roughly the same frequency as temperature changes observed in Greenland ice cores, providing clear evidence of rapid oceanographic change during the past 36 kyr. Planktonic foraminiferal δ 18 O data suggest that only the laminated sediments deposited during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), and perhaps one other interval formed during a period of increased water column stratification. Sedimentary Re and Mo data are consistent with bottom waters that were sulfidic during the LGM and suboxic during other laminated intervals. Results of a numerical model of C org and Re burial are consistent with a mechanism whereby an increased C org flux to the seafloor drove oxygen concentrations toward depletion during times of deposition of the suboxic laminated intervals. Such a process could have resulted from increased upwelling driven either by increased deep water formation due to colder and/or more saline surface waters or by stronger northeasterly monsoonal winds.