A calcite dissolution pulse in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea during the last deglaciation

Abstract

Carbonate preservation profiles in the Atlantic Ocean and the Norwegian-Greenland Sea seem to be out-of phase during the last deglaciation. A possibly time transgressive deglacial preservation spike in the N-Atlantic overlaps with a major calcite dissolution pulse in the Norwegian Sea. Contemporaneously major changes in surface and bottom water circulation of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea occurred. Isotopic and sedimentological evidence suggests that bottom water formation in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea was almost shut down during the last maximum glaciation and probably also during the first part of the last deglaciation. During that time corrosive bottom waters might have filled the Norwegian Sea deep sea basins causing carbonate dissolution at the sea floor. Subsequently, the reinitiation of deep water formation could have been coupled with increased resuspension of organic matter and/or reworking of older organic matter rising the p CO2 of bottom waters and contributing to carbonate dissolution at the sea floor. Additionally, large volumes of atmospheric CO2 stored before the Younger Dryas might have been pumped into the deep sea possibly by downwelling of surface waters and been neutralized against carbonate at the sea floor.