Late Quaternary sedimentation along a fjord to shelf (trough) transect, East Greenland ( c. 68° N)

Abstract

The East Greenland continental margin between c.66 and 68° N consists of a major fjord/trough system that extends from Kangerdlugssuaq Fjord, along Kangerdlugssuaq Trough to Denmark Strait. Measurements of the temperature and salinity of the water column along this transect indicates that ‘warm’ water (0–2°C) underlies the surface Polar Water of the East Greenland Current. A series of short (1–3 m) gravity cores along the fjord/trough transect have sufficient numbers of foraminifera that a suite of AMS 14C dates has been obtained, including both basal and core-top age estimates. Rates of sediment accumulation vary through space and time; over the last 1 ka estimates vary from c. 3 to 0.1 m. These dates and measurements of sediment density, together with measurements of the percentages by weight of total organic carbon and biogenic silica, are used to show graphs of fluxes of the organic and inorganic sediment components over the last 1–14 ka. An analysis of the net flux of foraminifera indicates a reduction in numbers during the Younger Dryas chronozone and a general similarity with data from the Renland (East Greenland) ice core data.