226Ra-in marine barite: relationship with carbonate dissolution and sediment focusing in the equatorial pacific

Abstract

Sedimentation rates were determined from the 226Ra ( T 1/2=1602 a) decay in barite in seven cores collected from the western, central and eastern equatorial Pacific. Timing of the last carbonate dissolution increase was investigated with this new chronometer. However, an unconformity in the 226Ra-in-barite profiles was observed at some sites, which could be related to this carbonate dissolution event. We discuss different mechanisms that may have generated these unconformities, including (1) bioturbation, (2) possible bias in the estimate of the correction for supported 226Ra activities, (3) changes in the 226Ra/Ba ratio within surface waters and (4) processes that may have affected the 226Ra/Ba ratio recorded in barite, either within the water column or at the sediment–water interface. Among the processes invoked, an increase in the sediment focusing during the Holocene constitutes the mechanism that can most likely explain the observed unconformities. An increase in the sediment redistribution by bottom currents would enhance the lateral transport of old resuspended barite crystals (with a low 226Ra/Ba ratio). The 226Ra/Ba ratio of barite that accumulates in the sediments, therefore, may have decreased, leading to the unconventional 226Ra-profile shape observed in several cores. A change in the chemistry of the bottom waters that transport the resuspended sediment may have also affected the sediment carbonate contents.