Open AccessLate Quaternary carbonate sedimentation and paleo‐oceanography in the eastern Norwegian Sea
Author(s) -
RAMM MOGENS
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
boreas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.95
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1502-3885
pISSN - 0300-9483
DOI - 10.1111/j.1502-3885.1989.tb00402.x
Subject(s) - geology , oceanography , carbonate , foraminifera , interglacial , bottom water , arctic , marine isotope stage , glacial period , geochemistry , paleontology , materials science , metallurgy , benthic zone
Four gravity cores from the eastern Norwegian Sea are studied. Absolute accumulation rates are quantified and variations in carbonate sedimentation and their implications for the paleo‐oceanographic history of the Norwegian Sea are described. In the eastern Norwegian Sea, interglacial, ice‐free conditions were developed during oxygen‐isotope stages 1 and 5e. Open water conditions were probably the norm during the summer season, also during glacial stages. Slightly elevated summer temperatures in periods during isotope stages 2 and 7 are demonstrated by increased contents of subpolar planktic foraminifera. The deep waters of the eastern Norwegian Sea have been well oxygenated during most of the last 250,000 years. Organic‐rich sediments and intensive carbonate dissolution in some parts of isotope stages 4 and 6 indicate corrosive bottom waters. A permanent ice cover and low saline surface waters, as found in the Arctic Ocean today, may have been developed in these periods. Well‐preserved foraminiferal assemblages from stage 2 show more oxygenated bottom waters and more effective bottom water renewal in this period than during stage 3.