Provenance of distal Sohm Abyssal Plain sediments: history of supply from the Wisconsinan glaciation in eastern Canada

Abstract

A 12-m-long core from the southern Sohm Abyssal Plain with 25 mud turbidites deposited during the past 40 ka is compared petrographically by X-ray diffraction analysis and spectrophotometry with possible source areas on the continental margin. Bathymetry and petrography show that no sediment is derived from the Northwest Atlantic Mid-Ocean Channel and most came across the Laurentian Fan. Resedimented Heinrich events are recognised and red mud turbidites from the Gulf of St. Lawrence correlate with peaks in ice-rafting of hematite-stained quartz in the north-east Atlantic Ocean, suggesting a common glaciological origin. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]