Historical and Geographical Trends in Sediment Chronology from Lakes and Marine Sites Along the Norwegian Coast

Abstract

Sediment cores collected from 12 lakes and eight marine sites along the Norwegian and Svalbard coast as part of a project investigating polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in sediments were dated radiometrically using 210Pb, 137Cs and 241Am fallout radionuclides. In all lake cores, except on Svalbard, the 137Cs activity versus depth profile appears to have been significantly modified by post-depositional migration within the sediment column. The relatively low 137Cs inventories suggest that these sites were not significantly impacted by fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl accident. All the marine cores have 137Cs inventories that are substantially lower than in lake sediments almost certainly due to leaching of 137Cs from the marine sediments due to higher solubility in the seawater. In the marine surface sediments, the unsupported 210Pb concentrations are up to an order of magnitude lower than in the corresponding lake sediments reflecting the higher (dry mass) sedimentation rate at the marine sites. Five of the cores including marine sites and lakes have unusual high 210Pb flux most likely due to sediment focusing. Most of the irregularities in the 210Pb records seem to be due to slump events but some patterns are also due to possibly increased accumulation rates. Three of the marine cores show systematic increase in their sedimentation rate from c.1960 towards the present while only one lake shows the same systematic increase.