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Paleoclimatic Influence on the Evolution of the Late Quaternary Clastic Sediments, Northwestern Arabian Sea

  • Original Article
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Journal of the Geological Society of India

Abstract

Sedimentological characteristics of the clastic sediments deposited in the Northwestern Arabian Sea at the ODP core sites 723A and 722B are used to reconstruct the paleoclimatic changes recorded during the last 150 kyrs. ODP site 723A is situated at 808 m water depth on the continental margin of Oman, whereas ODP site 722B is located at 2028 m water depth on the Owen Ridge. Clay minerals such as palygorskite, illite, chlorite, smectite, kaolinite, and non-clay minerals, quartz and feldspar, are present in both cores. However, palygorskite and illite dominated the clay mineral assemblage at core 723A, and illite dominated over palygorskite in the clay mineral assemblage at core 722B. Illites are dominantly well crystalline, with slightly poorer crystallinity occurring during Holocene and interglacial stages. Chemically illites are Mg-rich with slightly Al-rich illites associated with aforesaid stages. The higher values of all moisture-clay based humidity tools (ratios of kaolinite/illite, kaolinite/chlorite, smectite /(illite+chlorite), kaolinite/palygorskite) are dominantly associated with stronger monsoon based weathering during the interglacial stages, Holocene and interstadial events. The increased total carbonate, elemental concentrations (calcium, barium and phosphorous) and decreased magnetic susceptibility values correlate with the enhanced monsoon intensities during the above events. Glacial stages and millennial-scale drier events (Heinrich, Younger Dryas and stadial events) are marked by the massive influx of wind borne terrigenous material, dominated by clay minerals with higher silicon and aluminium contents; they have increased sediment accumulation rates at both sites. The clay proxies and other sedimentological data demonstrate monsoonal oscillations at 40, 23, 6.3, 4.4 and 3.5kyr cycles in Milankovitch and sub-Milankovitch time scales. The present study suggests that the detritus are mainly eolian and primarily originated from the nearby continental areas of Oman, the Arabian Peninsula, Persian Gulf and Iran-Makran regions. The northwesterly wind played a significant role in sediment transportation into the present sites throughout the studied period. The southwest summer and northeast winter monsoon winds played minor roles in the above activity during the interglacial and glacial stages, respectively. The Indus River discharges (predominantly of glacial origin), although low, have contributed some clay minerals in the deeper water core site.

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Acknowledgement

Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) is thankfully acknowledged for providing core samples of this investigation through IODP request nos. 46259 and 40418. We also thankfully acknowledge Director and Mr. S.Ojha Scientist-G, IUAC, New Delhi, for allowing us to carry out the XRD analysis of samples. The authors are very much thankful to Dr. S. Tiwari, Assistant Professor, IIT, Roorkee, for constructive suggestions on XRD data. The thoughtful and constructive comments of two anonymous reviewers helped to improve the manuscript’s quality.

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  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, 211 002, India

    Vikas Dev, Anil Kumar Sahu, A. K. Rai & S. S. Das

  2. Department of Earth Science, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur, 208 016, India

    Suman Kumar

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Vikas Dev, research scholar, is presently working on the Quaternary clastic sediment in the northwestern Arabian Sea to understand the role of climatic variabilities in their evolution. The conceptualization of the manuscript, methodology, investigation, curation of samples and data, original draft writing and review work is done by him.

Anil Kumar Sahu, research scholar, is currently working on the dense minerals of the northwestern Arabian Sea using IODP cores. His main emphasis is to find out the role of various source rocks occurring in the adjoining land masses in the contribution of sediment to the Arabian Sea. He has looked after the investigation and curation of samples and data.

Suman Kumar is a Hydrogeologist. He has expertise in aquifer characterization and management, water quality, analytical and numerical modelling of ground water systems, sediment analysis and geophysical logging. He has helped in the interpretations of the x-ray diffraction analysis data.

Prof. A.K. Rai, a Paleoceanographer, is currently working on Neogene and Quaternary deep-sea sediments to understand the climatically induced millennial and sub-millennial changes in surface and deep water hydrography in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. IODP samples of the Arabian Sea were jointly procured with Prof. S.S. Das.

Prof. S.S. Das is a Sedimentologist with a long history of working with Quaternary deep marine and recent fluvial sediment. He has expertise in clay sedimentology and its application in provenance and paleoclimatic interpretations. He carried out the overall supervision of the work. He is also involved in manuscript writing, editing and communication with the journal.

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Dev, V., Sahu, A.K., Kumar, S. et al. Paleoclimatic Influence on the Evolution of the Late Quaternary Clastic Sediments, Northwestern Arabian Sea. J Geol Soc India 99, 1349–1360 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-023-2482-y

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