Sediment focusing in the Panama Basin, Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean

Physics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Thorium-230, Sediment Focusing, Boundary Scavenging, Mass Accumulation Rate, Panama Basin, Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean

Scientific paper

Age-model derived sediment mass accumulation rates (MARs) are consistently higher than 230 Th-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 xs 230 Th inventories over the past 25 ka in the deeper parts of the basin. We find little difference in xs 230 Th inventories between the highest and lowest reaches of the basin. Furthermore, there is no correlation between xs 230 Th-derived sediment focusing factors and water depth which suggests that the topographic highs do not serve as a source of xs 230 Th. A spatial analysis suggests that there may be an enhanced scavenging effect on xs 230 Th concentrations in sediment closest to the equator where productivity is the highest, although further data is necessary to corroborate this. At the equator xs 230 Th-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 232 Th 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.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Sediment focusing in the Panama Basin, Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Sediment focusing in the Panama Basin, Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Sediment focusing in the Panama Basin, Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-832012

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.