Description: Marine geophysical surveys employing Seabeam, multi- and single-channel seismic reflection, gravity and magnetic instruments were conducted at two locations along the continental slope of the Peru Trench during the Seaperc cruise of the R/V “Jean Charcot” in July 1986. These areas are centered around 5°30′S and 9°30′S off the coastal towns of Paita and Chimbote respectively. These data indicate that (1) the continental slope off Peru consists of three distinct morpho-structural domains (from west to east are the lower, middle and upper slopes) instead of just two as previously reported; (2) the middle slope has the characteristics of a zone of tectonic collapse at the front of a gently flexured upper slope; (3) the upper half of the lower slope appears to represent the product of mass wasting; (4) thrusting at the foot of the margin produces a continuous morphologic feature representing a deformation front where the products of mass-wasting are overprinted by a compressional tectonic fabric; (5) a change in the tectonic regime from tensional to compressional occurs at the mid-slope-lower slope boundary, the accretionary prism being restricted to the very base of the lower slope in the Paita area. The Andean margin off Peru is an “extensional active margin” or a “collapsing active margin” developing a subordinated accretionary complex induced by massive collapse of the middle slope area.

Description: A total of 131 current meter records of between 6 and 24 month duration are analysed to describe the deep flow field of the eastern North Atlantic from 19° to 54°N and from the Continental Slope to the Mid Atlantic Ridge. Mean flows are weak and may be statistically indeterminate in some records and locations, but appear to indicate cyclonic circulations around the Iberia and Porcupine abyssal plains with a generally southward flow along the Mid Atlantic ridge and a deep northward slope current (where measurements exist) along the eastern boundary. The deepest inflow to the north-eastern basin that has been identified to date takes place through the Discovery Gap of 〉4,700 m sill-depth at 37° 25′N 15° 45′W in the Azores-Portugal ridge. South of that ridge, observations are sparse and no systematic circulation is yet evident. These observations are discussed in relation to recent geostrophic estimates of the deep circulation.

Description: Microbial anaerobic oxidation of methane in sediments is a kinetic process associated with a carbon isotope effect which enriches the remaining methane in 13C. Three, models: % residual methane, higher hydrocarbon enrichment, and CO2-CH4 coexisting pairs are used to independently calculate fractionation factors (αc) in the range of 1.002–1.014, which overlap the range determined by culture studies, αc is smaller than that associated with methanogenesis by CO2 reduction or by acetate-type fermentation, and comparison of the coexisting CO2-CH4 pairs can distinguish between the formation and consumption processes. Methane oxidation in sediments continues to a threshold concentration of ca. 0.2 mM; the residual methane is either unavailable or unattractive to consumption. Minor amounts of methane may also be produced simultaneously in the methane consumption zone, influencing the apparent fractionation factor in this zone.

Description: Sediments on high Arctic shelves result from modern processes and the effect of former glaciations. Based on data from the northern Barents Sea, an area with input from large and numerous surging glaciers, we define two principal zones with different environmental regimes and corresponding sedimentary facies: (1) a glacier-proximal zone influenced by grounding-line processes and the immediately adjacent areas affected by glacial sediment input, and (2) a glacier-distal, sea-ice and current-controlled zone, which also includes a wide sediment-starved region dominated by biogenic carbonate accumulation. Characteristic of the glacier-proximal zone are glacial surges which affect sedimentation rates and leave a diagnostic pattern of sea-floor morphologies. Extensive ice gouging causes a homogeneous sediment texture. In the glacier-distal zone, fine-grained mud supplied from sea ice and infrequent coarser material deposited from icebergs is reworked by modern oceanographic processes. On shallow banks, in 30–50 m of water, carbonates accumulate from a prolific bottom fauna formed in response to extensive reworking and nutrient supply.

Description: Clay- and silt-size mineral assemblages are described from eight piston cores from the fiords and shelf on the western margin of Baffin Bay, Arctic Canada. Radiocarbon dates indicate that all the cores extend back in time to the last local glacial/interglacial transition (i.e. 8–10 ka); four extend back to between 10 and 12 ka, and HU77-021-156, located on the Southeast Baffin Island shelf, includes the entire late Foxe glacial stage. Silt- and clay-size particles constitute ca 40 and 55%, respectively, by weight of the bulk sediment. The clay-size fraction is dominated by mica; feldspars and quartz are the main constituents of the silt fraction. The fiord sediments are mainly composed of local mineralogies, but on the shelf, and at times in the fiords, exotic mineral species occur. The most important of these are detrital carbonates, derived from erosion of the Paleozoic basins in Arctic Canada and/or northwest Greenland. Both calcite and dolomite occur; calcite is the major carbonate mineral in the “southern” cores, whereas dolomite is the most abundant in cores north of 66°N. Higher inputs of carbonate species occur during regional deglaciation, 7–10 ka, and during the last 5 ka (probably reflecting increased iceberg production from northwest Greenland). Thus variations in the precentages of the carbonate minerals indicate significant shifts in Late Quaternary glacial-sediment source areas and oceanographic regimes.

Description: Silica chimneys were discovered in 1985 at 86°W in the rift valley of the Galapagos Spreading Center at 2600 m depth (“Cauliflower Garden”). The inactive chimneys lack any sulfides and consist almost entirely of amorphous silica (up to 96 wt.% SiO2, opal-A); Fe and Mn oxides are minor constituents. Oxygen isotope data show that formation of the silica chimneys took place at temperatures between 32°C (+29.9‰ δ18O) and 42°C (+27.8‰ δ18O).Th/Udating reveals a maximum age of 1440 ± 300y. Amorphous silica solubility relations indicate that the silica chimneys were formed by conductive cooling of pure hydrothermal fluids or by conductive cooling of a fluid/seawater mixture. Assuming equilibrium with quartz at 500 bars, initial fluid temperatures of more than 175°C (i.e., a concentration of 〉 182 ppm SiO2) were required to achieve sufficient supersaturation for the deposition of amorphous silica at 40°C and 260 bars. If the silica chimneys originate from the same or a similar fluid as higher-temperature ( 〈 300°C) sulfide-silica precipitates found nearby (i.e., 2.5 km away), then subsurface deposition of sulfides may have occurred.

Description: A radiotracer technique, employing 27Mg, is used to determine the Mg released by ammonium exchange on undis-solved humic acid in a seawater medium. This new method allows for the measurement of exchangeable Mg on the solid phase surface, which eliminates the problem caused by the high-Mg background in the seawater matrix. The precision calculated from the counting statistics is better than ±2%; the reproducibility among repeated counts ranged from ±1% to ±3%. The higher sensitivity of the method allows for monitoring the MgNH4 exchange at concentrations as low as 30 mM NH4. This is a major improvement relative to the data obtained with the analytical methods used so far, which allow detection of exchangeable Mg only at NH4 concentrations higher than 1 M. The lower experimental concentrations are more in accordance with the natural ammonium levels found in anoxic marine sediments. For the undissolved humic acid used in this experiment, the amount of exchangeable Mg in apparent equilibrium with an ammonium-free seawater matrix was found to be 96.6 ± 0.4 meq/100g. The Mg-NH4 exchange on humic acid in seawater comes to a steady-state value in 〈 18 min. The conditional equilibrium constant obtained for this reaction, Kcond = 0.039 ± 0.001 M−1. The technique can be expanded to other geochemical solid phases in seawater and it can be modified to study the behavior of the major cations by using 24Na, 42K and 49Ca.

Description: Compressional-wave (P-wave) velocities and magnetic susceptibilities were measured on gravity (GGC) and piston cores (PC) and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 108 advanced piston cores (APC) from the equatorial Atlantic to test our hypothesis that climatically driven changes in terrigenous and biogenic fluxes, and in carbonate dissolution control the interrelationships between the two signals. In Pleistocene sediments deposited above the calcium compensation depth (CCD) we observed changes in P-wave velocity and magnetic susceptibility that are (1) inversely correlated, and (2) coherent to changes in glacial-interglacial climate. Glacials show low P-wave velocities and relatively high magnetic susceptibilities. In contrast, interglacials show high P-wave velocities and relatively low magnetic susceptibilities. These temporal changes in P-wave velocity and magnetic susceptibility reflect the climatic history recorded in the sediments and are related to: (1) the production of biogenic carbonate, mainly planktonic foraminifera, and (2) the terrigenous sediment supply that contains magnetic minerals. Below the CCD this pattern disappears and consistently low P-wave velocities and distinctly higher magnetic susceptibilities prevail. The distinct decrease of large P-wave velocity fluctuations is due to the dissolution of carbonate sediments which cause a distinct decrease in sand grain sizes and a consistently low carbonate content (〈 10%). Dilution of magnetic material by the carbonate fraction is minor and the high magnetic susceptibility values and the relatively high amplitude variations in magnetic susceptibility are due to changes in the magnetic mineral concentration of the terrigenous (non-carbonate) fraction. In early Pliocene sediments we also observed covarying velocity and magnetic susceptibility signals that may reflect a predominatly terrigenous control on sedimentation. Our preliminary results demonstrate that a combined use of non-destructive measurements of acoustic and rock-magnetic signals provides a potential paleoceanographic tool for characterizing: (1) glacial-interglacial pelagic sedimentation, (2) pelagic sedimentation above the CCD, (3) increases in carbonate dissolution, and (4) areas below the CCD. Furthermore, rock magnetic fluctuations in sediments below the CCD may provide an important stratigraphic tool for the deep carbonate-free basins of the world's oceans.

Description: Marine molluscan shells from para-type and other loclities of the Holsteinian interglaciation were dated by ThU and the electron spin resonance (ESR) method to more than 350,000 and 370,000 yr B.P., beyond the limit of ThU dating. The high age estimate is corroborated by a KAr age of 420,000 yr B.P. determined from volcanic ash near the base of the Ariendorf paleosol in the Middle Rhine valley believed to be a pedostratigraphic equivalent of the Holsteinian. Shells from the Herzeele marine unit III, an equivalent of the Wacken (Dömnitz) warm stage in northern France and subsequent to the Holsteinian, revealed ages between 300,000 and 350,000 yr B.P. A correlation of these two warm stages with marine oxygen-isotope stages 11 and 9 on the SPECMAP and CARTUNE time scales is suggested. From the benthic oxygen-isotope record one may infer that no exceptionally high global sea-level rise corresponds to the large transgressions of the Holstein Sea in northern Germany. Therefore, a significant proportion of the transgression was probably the result of an unusually large local glacial-isostatic depression caused by the extreme buildup of ice during the preceding Elster glaciation (stage 12). According to the deep-sea record, it lasted approximately 50% longer than the subsequent cold stage 10. The outstanding soil formation with Braunlehm and the well-developed thermal optimum of the Holsteinian are tentatively related to a phase of minimum sea-ice cover in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea, as deduced from long benthic carbon-isotope records from the central Atlantic.

Description: Water samples and suspended matter taken in the Atlantis-II Deep area (Red Sea) during the expedition SO-2 (with RV “Sonne”) in November 1977 were investigated for chemical composition. Only slight changes have been found for most components since 1966. A strong decrease of the Cu content (from 100–500 μg kg−1 according to Brooks et al., 1969, to values below 1 μg kg−1) has, however, become evident. Comparison between theoretical concentrations in the intermediate brine layers (resulting when using the lower or the upper homothermal layers, respectively, as end members of mixing processes with Red Sea deep water) and the concentrations measured prove that precipitation and resolution processes have considerable influence on the concentrations found in solution. Components strongly involved in such processes are: iron, manganese, copper, oxygen, sulfate, and silica, as could be shown from comparison of theoretical and measured concentration profiles along the water column. Investigations of the metals suspended in the brine confirm these processes. Compared to 1971/1972, the Cu and Zn values in suspension (preferring the southwestern basin at that time) are clearly reduced — thus being in agreement with the recently lowered hydrothermal activity. Remarks on the hypothetical composition of the unknown hydrothermal brine discharging into the deepest basin are also included.