The variability of Baffin Bay seafloor sediment mineralogy: the identification of discrete glacial sediment sources and application to Late Quaternary downcore analysis

Abstract

Quantitative X-ray diffraction (qXRD) mineralogy of bedrock, ice-rafted, and fluvial clasts, 239 seafloor samples (<2 mm), and samples from two long piston cores were used to (i) define regional patterns and sources within Baffin Bay, (ii) evaluate two areas from west Greenland and east Baffin Island in more detail, and (iii) apply these findings to the interpretation of downcore variations in sediment sources. A sediment-unmixing program is used to define surface regional mineral assemblages and to examine changes in sediment sources in cores HU2013029-77PC (southern Baffin Island slope) and HU2008029-8PC (Davis Strait) during Marine Isotope Stages 1 through 3. Distinct regional patterns are observed in the association between the mineralogy of surface sediments and carbonate and basalt bedrock outcrops. Detailed analysis of seafloor samples from the west Greenland troughs and Baffin Island fjords show regional differences in mineralogy, with sediments derived from the Foxe Fold Belt (north-central Baffin Island) being mineralogically distinct from sediments to the north and south. Grain-size spectra from the west Greenland troughs suggested an association between grain-size spectra and mineral assemblages. Sediment unmixing of qXRD data from the two piston cores shows discrete intervals where one or more mineral sources were dominant. However, chronological control is such that it is unclear whether the various ice streams draining into Baffin Bay behaved synchronously.