Holocene sedimentation in the Hupo Trough of the southwestern East Sea (Japan Sea) and development of the East Korea Warm Current

Abstract

Various sediment properties, such as mean grain size, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, C/N ratio, CaCO3, and biogenic opal content, were analyzed for a box core (BC02; 45 cm long) and a gravity core (GC02; 628 cm long), which were collected from the western margin of the Hupo Trough located off the eastern coast of Korea. The study area has been affected by the East Korea Warm Current (EKWC), a branch of the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC). The analytical results obtained for BC02 and the upper part of GC02 were in agreement, affirming the core-top preservation of GC02. Based on the corrected calibrated AMS 14C dates, the sedimentation rate of GC02 changed abruptly at ~8.2 ka from ~4.0–10.2 cm/kyr in the lower part to ~56.6–91.0 cm/kyr in the middle to upper part. This corresponds to the lithologic change from sandy mud to mud sediments showing the mean grain size change from 6.9 to 46.0 μm. Diverse paleoceanographic proxies representing the surface water condition exhibited varying degree of change at ~8.2 ka, after which all the properties remain almost unchanged, implying stable and continuous depositional conditions following the complete development of the EKWC. Furthermore, it indicated that the sediment depositional conditions in the Hupo Trough in response to the EKWC might have stabilized at ~8.2 ka since the opening of the Korea Strait during the Holocene sea level rise. Moreover, microfossil data from previous studies on the establishment of the TWC in the East Sea (Japan Sea) support our interpretation that the sediment properties revealed the Holocene development of the EKWC in the Hupo Trough.