Biogenic-silica accumulation in the Ross Sea and the importance of Antarctic continental-shelf deposits in the marine silica budget

doi:10.1016/0016-7037(86)90263-2

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

Volume 50, Issue 9, September 1986, Pages 2099-2110

https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(86)90263-2 Get rights and content

Abstract

Thirty-five box cores were collected from the continental shelf in the Ross Sea during cruises in January and February, 1983. Pb-210 and Pu-239, 240 geochronologies coupled with biogenic-silica measurements were used to calculate accumulation rates of biogenic silica. Sediment in the southern Ross Sea accumulates at rates ranging from ≤0.6 to 2.7 mm/y, with the highest values occurring in the southwestern Ross Sea. Biogenic-silica content in surface sediments ranges from 2% (by weight) in Sulzberger Bay and the eastern Ross Sea to 41% in the southwestern Ross Sea. Biogenic-silica accumulation in the southwestern Ross Sea averages 2.7 × 10⁻² g/cm²/y and is comparable to accumulation rates in high-productivity, upwelling environments from low-latitude continental margins (e.g., Gulf of California, coast of Peru). The total rate of biogenic-silica accumulation in the southern Ross Sea is approximately 0.2 × 10¹⁴ g/y, with most of the accumulation occurring in basins (500–1000 m water depth). If biogenic-silica accumulation in the southern Ross Sea continental shelf is typical of other basins on the Antarctic continental shelf, as much as 1.2 × 10¹⁴ g/y of silica could be accumulating in these deposits. Biogenic-silica accumulation on the Antarctic continental shelf may account for as much as a fourth of the dissolved silica supplied to the world ocean by rivers and hydrothermal vents.

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Biogenic-silica accumulation in the Ross Sea and the importance of Antarctic continental-shelf deposits in the marine silica budget

Abstract

Mar. Geol.

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta

Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta

Com. Shelf Res.

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Cont. Shelf Res.

Deep-Sea Res.

Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Deep-Sea Res.

Marine Micropaleontology

Anal. Chim. Acta

Mar. Chem.

Mar. Geol.

Mar. Geol.

Quaternary Res.

Marine Micropaleontology

Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta

Sedimentation on the West Antarctic continental margin

The uranium-series radionuclides as tracers of geochemical processes in Long Island Sound

Principles of Chemical Sedimentology

The fate of phytoplankton blooms in the southern Ross Sea: carbon and nitrogen dynamics over a deep, high latitude austral continental shelf

Trans. Amer Geophys. Union

Ecology of the Ross Sea benthos. The fauna of the Ross Sea

N.Z. Dept. Sci. Industr. Res. Bull.

GEBCO Bathymetric Sheet 5.18 (Circum-Antarctic)

Glacial marine sedimentation in the Ross Sea

The marine budgets of silica and Si32

The late Cenozoic glacial history of Antarctica

Glacial marine geology of the George V-Adelie continental shelf, East Antarctica

Clast shape as an indicator of transport and depositional mechanisms in glacial marine sediments: George V continental shelf, Antarctica

J. Sediment. Petrol.

Paniculate flux to the water column and seafloor of the Bransfield Strait, Antarctica

Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union

Oceanographic influences on sedimentation along the Antarctic continental shelf

Chemistry of hot springs on the East Pacific Rise and their effluent dispersal

Nature