• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• 제34권1호
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• pp.15-29
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• 2021

In the Arctic Ocean, the distribution of sea ice and ice sheets changes as climate changes. Because the distribution of ice cover influences the mineral composition of marine sediments, studying marine sediments transported by sea ice or iceberg is very important to understand the global climate change. This study analyzes marine sediment samples collected from the Arctic Ocean and infers the provenance of the sediments to reconstruct the paleoenvironment changes of the western Arctic. The analyzed samples include four gravity cores collected from the Araon mound in the Chukchi Plateau and one gravity core collected from the slope between the Araon mounds. The core sediments were brown, gray, and greenish gray, each of which corresponds to the characteristic color of sediments deposited during the interglacial/glacial cycle in the western Arctic Ocean. We divide the core sediments into three units based on the analysis of bulk mineral composition, clay mineral composition, and Ice Rafted Debris (IRD) as well as comparison with previous study results. Unit 3 sediments, deposited during the last glacial maximum, were transported by sea ice and currents after the sediments of the Kolyma and Indigirka Rivers were deposited on the continental shelf of the East Siberian Sea. Unit 2 sediments, deposited during the deglacial period, were from the Kolyma and Indigirka Rivers flowing into the East Siberian Sea as well as from the Mackenzie River and the Canadian Archipelago flowing into the Beaufort Sea. Unit 2 sediments also contained an extensive amount of IRD, which originated from the melted Laurentide Ice Sheet. During the interglacial stage, fine-grained sediments of Unit 1 were transported by sea ice and currents from Northern Canada and the East Siberian Sea, but coarse-grained sediments were derived by sea ice from the Canadian Archipelago.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• 제35권1호
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• pp.13-24
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• 2022

The Arctic Ocean is very sensitive to global warming and Arctic Ocean sediments provide a records of terrestrial climate change, analyzing their composition helps clarify global warming. The gravity core sediment ARA07C-St02B was collected at the East Siberian margin during an Arctic expedition in 2016 on the Korean ice-breaking vessel ARAON, and its provenance was estimated through sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical analysis. The core sediment was divided into four units based on sediment color, sand content and ice-rafted debris content. Units 1 and 3 had higher sand and ice-rafted debris contents than units 2 and 4, and contained a brown layer, whereas units 2 and 4 were mainly composed of a gray layer. Correlation analysis using the adjacent core sediment ARA03B-27 suggested that the sediment units were deposited during marine isotope stage 1 to 4. The bulk mineral, clay mineral, and geochemical compositions of units including a brown layer differed from units including a gray layer. Bulk and clay mineral compositions indicated that coarse and fine sediments had a different origin. Coarse sediments might have been deposited mostly by the East Siberian Coastal Current from the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea or by the Beaufort Gyre from the Chukchi Sea, whereas fine sediments might have been transpoted mostly by currents from the East Siberian Sea, the Chukchi Sea and the Beaufort Sea. Some of the coarse sediments in unit 1 and fine sediments in unit 3 might have been deposited by iceberg ice, sea ice or current from the Beaufort Sea and the Canada Archipelago. Investigating the geochemical composition of the potential origins will elucidate the origin and transportation of the study area's core sediments.