Search results for "Sapropel"
showing 10 items of 34 documents
High-frequency climate fluctuations over the last deglaciation in the Alboran Sea, Western Mediterranean: Evidence from calcareous plankton assemblag…
2018
Abstract A high resolution study, with a centennial scale resolution, has been performed on the calcareous plankton assemblage (coccolithophores and planktonic foraminifera) at Ocean Drilling Program Site 976, Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean), focusing on the interval between 20 and 9 ka, in order to reconstruct changes in surface and subsurface water dynamics and productivity. The biotic surface water proxies integrate the extremely detailed (multi-decadal scale) geochemical data set and the pollen record already available at the core, thus providing a complete paleoenvironmental/paleoceanographic reconstruction. The results highlight the sensitivity of the calcareous plankton in record…
Calcareous nannofossil palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and preservation in sapropel S1 at the Eratosthenes Seamount (Eastern Mediterranean)
2019
Abstract The most recent organic carbon-enriched layer (sapropel S1) deposited at the Eratosthenes Seamount has unique features, such as an early lithological interruption, fine light silt laminae and an exceptional vertical extent that is over 25 cm thick. Here we investigate calcareous nannofossil assemblages to reconstruct very high-resolution palaeoenvironmental and palaeoceanographic variations recorded before, during and after the perturbation episode that involved the eastern Mediterranean Sea, due to the massive freshwater discharge via Nile River. Our results show that the deep chlorophyll maximum development, observed in all micropalaeontological groups from previous studies, is a…
Sapropel as a Binder: Properties and Application Possibilities for Composite Materials
2015
Recent development trends largely look for possibilities of a wider use of natural materials and local resources. In this perspective, the use of organic rich lake sediment - sapropel - as a binding material in line with other environmentally friendly filling materials can be considered as a challenge. Sapropel itself is a valuable resource with multiple areas of application, for example, medicine, veterinary, agriculture, livestock farming, balneology, cosmetic applications, construction, and its application options have been widely studied in the 20th century in the Baltic countries, Ukraine and Russia. Birch wood fibre and sanding dust, hemp shives, 'Aerosil' are used as a filler and thr…
Reventilation Episodes During the Sapropel S1 Deposition in the Eastern Mediterranean Based on Holococcolith Preservation
2019
Organic-rich layers (sapropels), preserved in eastern Mediterranean marine sediment records, represent pronounced perturbations to thermohaline circulation and environmental conditions in the basin, in response to enhanced African monsoon activity and subsequent massive freshwater discharge. During the most recent event, Sapropel S1 formed between 10.8 and 6.1 ka, when freshwater-driven stratification caused seafloor anoxia below ~1,800-m depth, as a result of both failure of deep water formation and enhanced productivity. Here we analyze coccolith assemblages from the open eastern Mediterranean that form a west-east transect across the basin and provide insights on past environmental chang…
Benthic foraminiferal assemblage turnover during intensification of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation in the Piacenzian Punta Piccola section (South…
2012
Abstract We present the results of a high-resolution analysis of the benthic foraminiferal assemblages at the Punta Piccola section (Stratotype for the Piacenzian Stage), which spans the gradual climate transition of the intensification of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation (3.6–2.6 Ma). This study highlighted a major benthic foraminiferal fauna turnover, which started at about 3.05 Ma with LO of Cibicidoides italicus , registered the gradual decline of Stilostomella spp. and culminated at about 2.7–2.75 Ma, when the dominant Siphonina reticulata was replaced by Cibicidoides pachyderma , costate Bulimine, spinose Bulimine, spinose Uvigerine and the Bolivina dilatata group. Four compositiona…
Stable isotopic composition of three foraminifera species in ODP Hole 160-963D
2020
Carbon-rich layers exist at both sides of the Mediterranean Sea sedimentary record and are called sapropels and organic rich layers (ORLs), respectively in the eastern and western basins. They have different levels of organic carbon accumulation and seafloor oxygen deprivation. The most recent sapropel and ORL deposition have a different timing, 10.8-6.1 and 14.5-9.0 ka respectively. Here we investigate oxygen isotopic records of three foraminifera species that occupy different habitats within the Sicily Channel water column since ~ 12.0 ka, thus in the sill between the eastern and western Mediterranean basins. These data are ice volume-corrected, to get information on water masses density …
Surface hydrographic changes at the western flank of the sicily channel associated with the last sapropel
2021
Abstract In the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the early Holocene was characterized by major climatic and oceanographic changes that led to the formation of the last sapropel (S1) between 10.8 and 6.1 kyr cal. BP. These hydrographic changes might have altered the water exchange between the eastern and western Mediterranean sub-basins through the Strait of Sicily, but the existing evidences are inconclusive. In the present study we show new evidence from sediment core NDT-6-2016 located at the western flank of the Sicily channel, a key location to monitor the surface/intermediate water exchange between the two Mediterranean sub-basins. We perform paleo-hydrographic reconstructions based on plank…
Calcareous Nannofossil and Planktonic Foraminifera Biostratigraphy of selected Piacenzian-Gelasian Laminites from Southern Italy
2011
Here we present the biostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic framework of a number of selected diatomaceous laminated intervals from the Crotone Basin (Calabria, Southern Italy). These layers, which we consider correlative to the Eastern Mediterranean Sapropel Layers, range in age from the early Piacenzian to the Gelasian, and show surprising thicknesses, suggesting that they were probably laid down in a landlocked, overfed basin. Specifically, a thick laminite from the surroundings of Cropani (Catanzaro) can be ascribed to nannofossil biozone MNN 16a and planktonic foraminifera biozone MPL 4b (lower Piacenzian) according to the Mediterranean calcareous plankton biostratigraphic zonations. …
African monsoon variability during the previous interglacial maximum.
2002
Little is known about centennial- to millennial-scale climate variability during interglacial times, other than the Holocene. We here present high-resolution evidence from anoxic (unbioturbated) sediments in the eastern Mediterranean Sea that demonstrates a sustained V800-yr climate disturbance in the monsoonal latitudes during the Eemian interglacial maximum (V125 ka BP). Results imply that before and after this event, the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) penetrated sufficiently beyond the central Saharan watershed (V21n) during the summer monsoon to fuel flooding into the Mediterranean along the wider North African margin, through fossil river/wadi systems that to date have been cons…
Pliocene sapropels in the northern Adriatic area: chronology and paleoenvironmental significance
1997
Abstract A detailed stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental study was carried out ona marine section from the Marecchia Valley in the Northern Apennines. The section consists predominantly of deep-water hemipelagic clays intercalated with 15 thick, laminated sapropels (M1–M15). Based on biostratigraphic (calcareous nannoplankton and planktonic foraminifera) and magnetostratigraphic results, the Marecchia Valley section is interpreted as being middle to late Pliocene in age, extending from the upper part of the Gauss Chron to the lower part of the Matuyama Chron. The high resolution stratigraphy allows us to correlate, for the first time, these northern Italian sapropels with sapropels previous…