Sediment provenance variations in the southern Okhotsk Sea over the last 180 ka: Evidence from light and heavy minerals

Abstract

In this study, we investigate light and heavy minerals in sediment core OS03-1 located at the Academy of Sciences Rise of the southern Okhotsk Sea to determine their distributions and sources over the last 180ka (thousand years). The sediment mainly consists of terrigenous and volcanic detritus. Ubiquitous drop-stones and volcanic detritus throughout the core and high detrital input suggest that sea ice, driven by wind and Kamchatka Current, was the main transport agent of detrital materials to the southern Okhotsk Sea. The ternary diagram of heavy minerals (hornblende-hypersthene-epidote) shows an expansion of detritus provenance from the eastern in cold periods to the northeastern in warm intervals of the Okhotsk Sea. It mainly relates to the shift of Aleutian Low. Combined with previous records, accumulation rates of quartz indicated a maximum extent but not perennial sea ice coverage during the glacial periods.