Abstract
Knowledge of accumulation rates of Arctic sediments is essential to the understanding of ice dynamics and sedimentation (Herman, 1974; Herman and Osmond, 1984; Markussen, Zahn, and Thiede, 1985) as well as to the paleoclimates and paleoceanography of the region (Herman, 1974). Earlier geochronological studies involved the application of cosmogenic 14C and 230Th, the daughter product of primordial 238U (Ku and Broecker, 1967, and references therein). Sedimentation rates in the range of mm/103 yr were obtained. These rates are consistent with paleomagnetic data (Linkova, 1965; Hunkins et al., 1971; Clark* et al., 1980; Aksu, 1985; Chapter 24 of this volume). Since most Arctic sediments contain small to negligible amounts of foraminiferal CaCO3 and other calcareous biogenic material (Herman, 1969, 1974), the most appropriate dating technique is 230Th (Goldberg and Koide, 1962). So far only a few sediment cores were dated using this isotope whose concentrations in sediments are found to be lower than expected, based on the 238U contents of the overlying water and the known reactivity of Th isotopes in seawater (Kaufman, 1969; Moore, 1981; see Chapter 23 of this volume for a detailed discussion concerning the Th isotope dating and reasons for the observed depletion of 230Th in Arctic sediments.)
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Somayajulu, B.L.K., Sharma, P., Herman, Y. (1989). Thorium and Uranium Isotopes in Arctic Sediments. In: Herman, Y. (eds) The Arctic Seas. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0677-1_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0677-1_22
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