Scavenging rates and particle characteristics in and near the Lacaze-Duthiers submarine canyon, northwest Mediterranean

Abstract

To better understand the particle exchange processes across the Pyrenean continental margin, sampling was conducted in 1994 and 1995 at stations in and near the Lacaze-Duthiers canyon in the northwestern Mediterranean. Moored current meters provide evidence of water transport along the canyon axis (cross-slope) and along-slope with the prevailing regional circulation. Turbidity measurements show surficial nepheloid layers (SNL) roughly coincident with fluorescence resulting from biological productivity. Recurrent benthic nepheloid layers (BNL) (as observed at a station on the outer-shelf) are advected into the canyon, forming intermediate nepheloid layers (INL). The mineralogical composition of suspended particles collected at stations on the outer-shelf and head of the canyon indicates an illite and chlorite-rich assemblage with minor magnesian calcite, indicative of materials resuspended from the adjacent shelf sediments. The mineralogy of suspended particles at stations farther in the canyon shows the presence of material derived from the Rhone River and likely transported along-slope by the Liguro-Provençal current. Measurements of the short-lived naturally occurring radionuclide 234Th show that it is actively scavenged from the nepheloid layers. Within the canyon, scavenging (as indicated by the mean residence time of dissolved Th with respect to uptake onto particles) is similar in both the SNL (30–58 d) and INL (25–85 d). Residence times of particulate Th with respect to removal from the water column follow the same trends, with values of about 5 d (1994) and 12–19 d (1995) in the SNL and 11–20 d (1994) and 15–23 d (1995) in the INL. This research suggests that while the Lacaze-Duthiers canyon serves as a conduit through which sediment associated with nepheloid layers detached from the shelf are transported, the rates of scavenging of Th in the canyon are not appreciably different from those on the adjacent shelf.