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Sources of Bottom Sediments in the Eastern Part of East Siberian Sea (Reconstruction from Geochemical Data)

  • MARINE GEOLOGY
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Abstract

Based on analytical materials obtained in 2008 an the expedition of the R/V Akademik M.A. Lavrentiev along a regional gas-geochemical profile stretching 550 km from Billings Cape towards the underwater Mendeleev Ridge, the formational features in the composition of bottom sediment (pelitic aleurites and aleuritic pelites) in the eastern part of the East Siberian Sea were reconstructed. It was found that the studied set of samples for the Cr/Th, Th/Co, La/Sc values, as well as Eu/Eu* and (Eu/Sm)N values, consists of two groups. The first group includes samples recovered at stations 70–350 of the gas-geochemical profile. The second group includes samples recovered at stations 370–560. On the (La/Yb)N–Eu/Eu* and (La/Yb)N–(Eu/Sm)N diagrams, the sample data points are concentrated in the overlap zone of the compositional areas of aleuritic–pelitic sediments of large rivers and rivers, fed mainly by the erosion products of sedimentary rocks. The distribution of the data points of bottom sediments on these diagrams, as well as on the (La/Yb)N–Th diagram, differs from the distribution of data points for the Neoproterozoic amphibolites, granitoids, and rhyolites of Wrangel Island; therefore, the latter most likely could not have been sources of fine-grained aluminosiliciclastic material. The samples of the first group are quite close to the surface sediments of the East Siberian Sea in their Eu/Eu* and (Eu/Sm)N values and a number of other parameters. In contrast, the samples of the second group are closer to the bottom sediments of the Chukchi Sea. Apparently, the bottom sediments northwest of Wrangel Island formed under the influence of currents carrying fine-grained aluminosilicoclastic material from the Chukchi Sea. West of Wrangel Island, sediment composition is controlled mainly by material coming from the western and central regions of the East Siberian Sea.

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Notes

  1. Classification of sediments in accordance with [37] and references therein.

  2. Since in many literary sources, information on the REE distribution in modern bottom sediments of the Russian Arctic seas and large rivers flowing into them is incomplete for various reasons, we [26] were forced to use not only the (La/Yb)N–Eu/Eu* diagram, but also, when analyzing the value of the Eu anomaly, its “substitute”—(Eu/Sm)N [8]. This was done in the present study.

  3. Hereinafter, everything is normalized to chondrite [64].

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is sincerely grateful to M.I. Tuchkova for help in searching the literature, M.D. Kravchishina and V.P. Shevchenko for consultations on a number of questions, and N.S. Glushkova for preparing illustrations for article.

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The research was carried out within the framework of the state assignment of the GIN RAS.

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    A. V. Maslov

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Maslov, A.V. Sources of Bottom Sediments in the Eastern Part of East Siberian Sea (Reconstruction from Geochemical Data). Oceanology 61, 517–532 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S000143702104010X

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