Deep-Sea Benthic Community Respiration: An in situ Study at 1850 Meters

The in situ oxygen uptake of sediments at 1850 meters on the continental slope south of New England is two orders of magnitude less than the uptake of sediments from shallow shelf depths. After treatment of the sediments with Formalin there was no measurable chemical oxygen uptake, which shows that the total uptake is biological (community respiration).     

Interstitial nitrate profiles and oxidation of sedimentary organic matter in the eastern equatorial atlantic

Pore-water nitrate concentrations in six pelagic eastern equatorial Atlantic cores increase from bottom water values (22 micromolar) to 40 micromolar at a depth of about 5 centimeters, then decrease to undetectable levels at depths as shallow as 40 centimeters. These nitrate concentrations and concentration gradients reflect zones of oxygen reduction, nitrate reduction, and sulfate reduction in the sediments. The estimated benthic flux of nitrate to the ocean from our data is much less than the total globalflux of nitrate to deep waters, even though these equatorial sediments underlie a productive upwelling zone. The estimated denitrification rate in our study area suggests that pelagic sediments may be important sites of marine denitrification.     

U.s. Geological survey core drilling on the atlantic shelf

The first broad program of scientific shallow drilling on the U.S. Atlantic continental shelf has delineated rocks of Pleistocene to Late Cretaceous age, including phosphoritic Miocene strata, widespread Eocene carbonate deposits that serve as reflective seismic markers, and several regional unconformities. Two sites, off Maryland and New Jersey, showed light hydrocarbon gases having affinity to mature petroleum. Pore fluid studies showed that relatively fresh to brackish water occurs beneath much of the Atlantic continental shelf, whereas increases in salinity off Georgla and beneath the Florida-Hatteras slope suggest buried evaporitic strata. The sediment cores showed engineering properties that range from good foundation strength to a potential for severe loss of strength through interaction between sediments and man-made structures.     

Cross-shelf sediment transport by an anticyclonic eddy off northern california

A combination of satellite imagery, shipboard profiles, drifter tracks, and moored current observations reveals that an anticyclonic eddy off the coast of northern California transported plumes of suspended sediments from the continental shelf into the deep ocean. The horizontal scale of the eddy was about 90 kilometers, and the eddy remained over the continental shelf and slope for about 2 months during the summer of 1988. The total mass of sediments transported by the eddy was of order 105 metric tons. Mesoscale eddies are recurrent features in this region and occur frequently in eastern boundary currents. These results provide direct evidence that eddies export sediments from continental shelves.     

Estuarine influences on a continental shelf plankton community

On the southeastern U.S. continental shelf, phytoplankton primary production and the densities of zooplankton, fish eggs, and fish larvae peak simultaneously in late summer and early fall. Some community response to irregular storm events is observed. However, the gross plankton community dynamics on this shelf are dominated by couplings with the local estuaries and shallow nearshore zone.     

Emergence of anoxia in the California current large marine ecosystem

Eastern boundary current systems are among the world's most productive large marine ecosystems. Because upwelling currents transport nutrient-rich but oxygen-depleted water onto shallow seas, large expanses of productive continental shelves can be vulnerable to the risk of extreme low-oxygen events. Here, we report the novel rise of water-column shelf anoxia in the northern California Current system, a large marine ecosystem with no previous record of such extreme oxygen deficits. The expansion of anoxia highlights the potential for rapid and discontinuous ecosystem change in productive coastal systems that sustain a major portion of the world's fisheries.     

Sea levels 7,000 to 20,000 years ago

Relative sea levels for early post-Pleistocene time are best known from radiocarbon dates of sediments on the continental shelves off Texas and off northeastern United States. Differences in indicated rates of the rise of relative sea level and in depths of the shelf-breaks reveal differential vertical movement of the two shelves during this time, with the result that the Atlantic shelf has sunk with respect to the Texas shelf.     

Manganese and related elements in the interstitial water of marine sediments

Analyses for manganese, nickel, iron, cobalt, sodium, and lithium in the interstitial water of cores from the southern California borderland and six deep-sea cores in the area of the East Pacific Rise show great variation in concentration of trace elements. Oxidizing near-shore sediments showed a 50-fold enrichment in manganese in contrast to sulfide-rich reducing sediments, which showed no enrichment. Deep-sea sediments were variable in their concentration of the trace metals. All but one core showed a high enrichment in dissolved manganese, with a maximum of 6.6 parts per million. Two cores showed a 100-fold enrichment in nickel and cobalt. The manganese appears to be in solution either as Mn(2+) or as a complex. The results appear to support manganese nodule formation in deep-sea sediments through a diffusion of manganese from depth to the surface.     

Spaceborne imaging radar: monitoring of ocean waves

A well-organized, very low energy ocean swell system off the East Coast of the United States was tracked with the Seasat synthetic aperture radar from deep water, across the continental shelf, and into shallow, water. The results indicate that spaceborne imaging radar may be used to accurately measure ocean wavelength and direction, even in coastal areas and in the presence of a mixed ocean.     

Late Precambrian oxygenation; inception of the clay mineral factory

An enigmatic stepwise increase in oxygen in the late Precambrian is widely considered a prerequisite for the expansion of animal life. Accumulation of oxygen requires organic matter burial in sediments, which is largely controlled by the sheltering or preservational effects of detrital clay minerals in modern marine continental margin depocenters. Here, we show mineralogical and geochemical evidence for an increase in clay mineral deposition in the Neoproterozoic that immediately predated the first metazoans. Today most clay minerals originate in biologically active soils, so initial expansion of a primitive land biota would greatly enhance production of pedogenic clay minerals (the "clay mineral factory"), leading to increased marine burial of organic carbon via mineral surface preservation.     

Development of the subsurface currents of the northern somali current gyre from march to july 1979

Measurements from March to July 1979 by current meters moored between the shelf and the deep sea from 5 degrees to 8 degrees N show that there was shallow ( < 150-meter) coastward and northward circulation between 6 degrees and 8 degrees N long before the onset of the southwest monsoon. After the onset, a powerful coastward flow developed offshore around 6 degrees N, branching into northward and southward flows at the continental rise while the current deepened to more than 250 meters. There seemed to be a separate circulation on the shelf with some counterflow to offshore. All current records show that there were strong fluctuations with periods of 3 to 6 days.     

Radiuin-226 and radon-222 in the coastal waters of west Florida: high concentrations and atmospheric degassing

On the central portion of the west Florida continental shelf, radionuclide activities show unusually wide variations: radium-226 activities up to 350 disintegrations per minute per 100 liters, radon-222 activities up to 1300 disintegrations per minute per 100 liters, and deficiencies of radon-222 as low as -10 disintegrations per minute per 100 liters. Florida's phosphate-rich strata seerm to be the principal source of the radionuclides, with the transfer occurring directly from sediments or indirectly in streams, ground-water flow, and geothermal springs. Winter storm fronts may enhance radon degassing in the shelf waters.     

Late wisconsinan sea levels on the southeast u.s. Atlantic shelf based on in-place shoreline indicators

A new interpretation of late Pleistocene sea levels on the U.S. Atlantic continental shelf is based on in-place lagoonal and salt-marsh sediments obtained from vibra-cores. These data show sea levels during the last Wisconsinan transgression were about 30 meters shallower than is indicated by existing sea-level curves.     

The high-velocity core of the Western boundary undercurrent at the base of the u.s. Continental rise

The Western Boundary Undercurrent is a high-velocity, contour-following bottom current that flows southwesterly on the U.S. Atlantic continental margin. A high-velocity core of the Western Boundary Undercurrent is delineated by an analysis of underlying sediments, which are characterized by coarse particle sizes and efficiently aligned magnetic grains in a zone from 4440 meters at the base of the rise to 5200 meters on the adjacent abyssal plain.     

Evidence for upwelling of corrosive "acidified" water onto the continental shelf

The absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) into the ocean lowers the pH of the waters. This so-called ocean acidification could have important consequences for marine ecosystems. To better understand the extent of this ocean acidification in coastal waters, we conducted hydrographic surveys along the continental shelf of western North America from central Canada to northern Mexico. We observed seawater that is undersaturated with respect to aragonite upwelling onto large portions of the continental shelf, reaching depths of approximately 40 to 120 meters along most transect lines and all the way to the surface on one transect off northern California. Although seasonal upwelling of the undersaturated waters onto the shelf is a natural phenomenon in this region, the ocean uptake of anthropogenic CO2 has increased the areal extent of the affected area.     

Yukon River: Evidence for Extensive Migration during the Holocene Transgression

The shift of the Yukon River, during the Holocene sea-level transgression, from south of Nunivak Island during the Wisconsin maximum to its present location (a distance greater than 300 kilometers) is indicated by remanent channels, distinct subbottom structures, deltaic sediments, and anomalous rates of sediment accumulation on the continental shelf of the east-central Bering Sea. These features were produced as the ancestral river migrated northward across the easternmost part of this area before 11,000 years ago.     

Uplifted trench sediments: southwestern alaska-bering shelf edge

Cretaceous turbidites are discontinuously exposed for 1700 kilometers along the continental margin of southwestern Alaska and the Bering shelf edge. Paleocurrent flow parallel to exposure patterns and the abundance of primary andesitic volcanic detritus suggest deposition in an oceanic trench. This Cretaceous trench bordering the continent was superseded by the Aleutian arc-trench in the earliest Tertiary.     

Seismic-reflection signature of cretaceous continental breakup on the wilkes land margin, antarctica

The passive (rifted) continental margin of Wilkes Land, Antarctica, is characterized on seismic reflection records by (i) in the south, a block-faulted sequence of highly stratified continental beds overlain by two distinct unconformities; (ii) a transitional, greatly thinned continental crust overlain by material interpreted to be flood basalt; and (iii) in the north, oceanic crust with a boundary ridge at its edge. The Mohorovici? discontinuity can be followed across the continent-ocean boundary and shows a progressive thinning of continental crust to a minimum of 2.5 kilometers at its northern edge.     

Protactinium-231 and thorium-230 abundances and high scavenging rates in the western arctic ocean

The Canadian Basin of the Arctic Ocean, largely ice covered and isolated from deep contact with the more dynamic Eurasian Basin by the Lomonosov Ridge, has historically been considered an area of low productivity and particle flux and sluggish circulation. High-sensitivity mass-spectrometric measurements of the naturally occurring radionuclides protactinium-231 and thorium-230 in the deep Canada Basin and on the adjacent shelf indicate high particle fluxes and scavenging rates in this region. The thorium-232 data suggest that offshore advection of particulate material from the shelves contributes to scavenging of reactive materials in areas of permanent ice cover.     

Seawater strontium isotopic variations from 2.5 million years ago to the present

Measurements of marine carbonate samples indicate that during the past 2.5 million years the (87)Sr/(86)Sr ratio of seawater has increased by 14 x 10(-5). The high average rate of increase of (87)Sr/(86)Sr indicates that continental weathering rates were exceptionally high. Nonuniformity in the rate of increase suggests that weathering rates fluctuated by as much as +/-30 percent of present-day values. Some of the observed shifts in weathering rates are contemporaneous with climatic changes inferred from records of oxygen isotopes and carbonate preservation in deep sea sediments.