Staged fine-grained sediment supply from the Himalayas to the Bengal Fan in response to climate change over the past 50,000 years

Abstract

The Bengal Fan, as the largest submarine fan in the world, receives a large amount of sediments discharged from the Himalayas through the Ganges-Brahmaputra (G-B) river system. However, previous studies of this system seldom focused on the role of channels, which are widely developed in the Bengal Fan, in sediment transportation over the last glacial cycle. Here, we discuss the coupled sedimentary archive in two gravity cores along the Active Channel in the Bengal Fan. Our findings are based on grain size, clay minerals, and Sr and Nd isotope compositions of these two sediment cores. End-member modeling of grain-size data reveals that the intermediate end-member represents the flux of distal fluvial particles from the G-B river system, the fine end-member denotes regional sediment supply of weathered volcanic materials, especially from the eastern Indian Peninsula, and the coarse end-member probably reflects nearby terrigenous input, aeolian input and/or volcanic glass. Sediment provenance analysis based on clay minerals, and Sr and Nd isotopes confirmed sediment supply from the G-B river system which was characterized by high illite percentage, high 87Sr/86Sr ratios and low εNd values, especially during five stages (50–45 ka, 42–37 ka, 31–28.5 ka, 24–20 ka and 14–9 ka). During these stages, heavy fine-grained sediment supply from the G-B river system was discharged into the study area under the influence of climate change rather than sea-level fluctuation, additionally emphasizing the importance of channels in the sediment transport process. Moreover, we find a significant alteration of sediment sources at ∼26 ka, which may be related to conversion of the deep-water currents in the Bay of Bengal.