Wienberg, Claudia; Titschack, Jürgen; Freiwald, André; Frank, Norbert; Lundälv, Tomas; Taviani, Marco; Beuck, Lydia; Schröder-Ritzrau, Andrea; Krengel, Thomas; Hebbeln, Dierk (2017): Uranium-series dating and mound aggradation rates obtained from the Mauritanian coral mound province [dataset publication series]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.884054, Supplement to: Wienberg, C et al. (2018): The giant Mauritanian cold-water coral mound province: Oxygen control on coral mound formation. Quaternary Science Reviews, 185, 135-152, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.02.012
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Abstract:
The largest coherent cold-water coral (CWC) mound province in the Atlantic Ocean exists along the Mauritanian margin, where up to 100 m high mounds extend over a distance of ~400 km, arranged in two slope-parallel chains in 400-550 m water depth. Additionally, CWCs are present in the numerous submarine canyons with isolated coral mounds being developed on some canyon flanks. Seventy-seven Uranium-series coral ages were assessed to elucidate the timing of CWC colonisation and coral mound development along the Mauritanian margin for the last ~120,000 years. Our results show that CWCs were present on the mounds during the Last Interglacial, though in low numbers corresponding to coral mound aggradation rates of 16 cm kyr**-1. Most prolific periods for CWC growth are identified for the last glacial and deglaciation, resulting in enhanced mound aggradation (>1000 cm kyr**-1), before mound formation stagnated along the entire margin with the onset of the Holocene. Until today, the Mauritanian mounds are in a dormant state with only scarce CWC growth. In the canyons, live CWCs are abundant since the Late Holocene at least. Thus, the canyons may serve as a refuge to CWCs potentially enabling the observed modest re-colonisation pulse on the mounds along the open slope. The timing and rate of the pre-Holocene coral mound aggradation, and the cessation of mound formation varied between the individual mounds, which was likely the consequence of vertical/lateral changes in water mass structure that placed the mounds near or out of oxygen-depleted waters, respectively.
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Coverage:
Median Latitude: 18.837806 * Median Longitude: -17.123613 * South-bound Latitude: 17.481833 * West-bound Longitude: -17.669800 * North-bound Latitude: 20.247117 * East-bound Longitude: -16.661633
Date/Time Start: 2007-01-08T09:30:00 * Date/Time End: 2010-11-16T22:07:00
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Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)
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2 datasets
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Datasets listed in this publication series
- Wienberg, C; Titschack, J; Freiwald, A et al. (2017): (Table 2) Uranium-series dating obtained from cold-water corals. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883951
- Wienberg, C; Titschack, J; Freiwald, A et al. (2017): (Table 3) Average mound aggradation rates. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.884051