Marine Geology and Oceanography of the Arctic Seas

398 Pages·1974·22.88 MB·English

by  L. K. Coachman

Marine Geology
and
Oceanography
of the Arctic Seas
Marine Geology
and
Oceanography
of the Arctic Seas
Edited by
YVONNE HERMAN
Springer-Verlag New York· Heidelberg • Berlin
1974
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Rosenberg-Herman, Yvonne.
Marine geology and oceanography of the arctic seas.
I. Geology-Arctic Ocean. 2. Oceanography-Arctic
Ocean. 1. Title.
QE70.R67 551.4'68 73-22236
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in
any form without written permission from Springer-Verlag.
© 1974 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1974
ISBN-13: 978-3-642-87413-0 e-ISBN-13: 978-3-642-87411-6
DOl: 10.1007/978-3-642-87411-6
Preface
Lorsqu'il n'est pas en notre pouvoir de discerner les plus vraies opinions, nous devons
suivre les plus pro babies.
-Rene Descartes
When, in the early 1960's I undertook to covered, due to limitations imposed by a single
study Arctic Ocean deep-sea cores, I did not volume.
anticipate that 10 years later the climatic history Although not comprehensive, it is hoped that
of the north polar basin would be still a matter of this book will provide an insight into the current
debate. Although much new data have accumu status of Arctic research and will also serve as a
lated in various fields of Arctic geology and reference for investigators studying the Arctic and
oceanography during the past decade, many ques subarctic seas.
tions remain to be answered. The paleo-oceanog It is with pleasure that I acknowledge the
raphy and the past atmospheric circulatory pat following people for helping in various ways
terns are still open to controversy, as are the during the preparation of this book: Philip E.
structure and evolution of the crust beneath this Rosenberg, David M. Hopkins, C. Hans Nelson,
ocean; furthermore, the origin and mode of dis Horace G. Richards, Richard C. Allison, Peter
persal of sediments is still not fully understood. Barnes, Edwin C. Buffington, Joe S. Creager,
The current status of many of these problems is D. A. McManus, Joseph H. Kravitz, G. Vilks,
discussed in the present volume. Thomas D. Hamilton, Ronald J. Echols, G. D.
Since data on Arctic research is scattered Sharma, J. Valentine, and Henry Grosshans.
through North American, Soviet, and European I also wish to acknowledge the cooperation I
literature, it seemed timely to bring together, received from all contributing authors and from
under one cover, important current studies from the publisher, Springer-Verlag New York Inc. and
several areas of research. Because of the wide Dr. Konrad F. Springer.
topical range and the multi-authored nature of
this book, it was not possible to insure precise
balance; moreover, certain subjects could not be YVONNE HERMAN
v
Contributors
KNUT AAGAARD, Department of Oceanography, HARLEY J. KNEBEL, Marine Biological Labora
University of Washington, Seattle, Washing tory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543,
ton 98105, U.S.A. U.S.A.
JOHN A. ANDREW, Shell Oil Company, P.O. Box
JOSEPH H. KRAVITZ, U.S. Naval Oceanographic
127, Metairie, Louisiana 70004, U.S.A.
Office, Washington, D.C. 20390, U.S.A.
OTIS E. AVERY, U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office,
HUBERT HORACE LAMB, Climatic Research Unit,
Washington, D.C. 20373, U.S.A.
School of Environmental Sciences, University
PETER BUURMAN, Department of Soil Science and of East Anglia, Norwich, England.
Geology, Agricultural University, Wagenin
gen, The Netherlands. ANGI SATYANARAYAN NAIDU, Institute of Marine
Science, University of Alaska, Fairbanks,
LAWRENCE K. COACHMAN, Department of Ocean
Alaska 99701, U.S.A.
ography, University of Washington, Seattle,
Washington 98105, U.S.A. FREDERIC P. NAUGLER (deceased), Pacific Ocean
ographic Laboratories, NOAA, University of
JOE S. CREAGER, Department of Oceanography,
Washington, Seattle, Washington 98105,
University of Washington, Seattle, Washing
U.S.A.
ton 98105, U.S.A.
RONALD J. ECHOLS, Department of Oceanogra C. HANS NELSON, U.S. Geological Survey, 345
phy, University of Washington, Seattle, Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California
Washington 98105, U.S.A. 94025, U.S.A.
YURI B. GLADENKOV, Geological Institute of
DAVID W. SCHOLL, U.S. Geological Survey, 345
the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.,
Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California
Pyzhevsky per 7, Moscow, U.S.S.R.
94025, U.S.A.
YVONNE HERMAN, Department of Geology, Wash
GHANSHYAM D. SHARMA, Institute of Marine Sci
ington State University, Pullman, Washing
ence, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska
ton 99163, U.S.A.
99701, U.S.A.
EDWARD PETER JACOBUS VAN DEN HEUVEL,
Sterrewacht "Sonnenborgh," Rijksuniversi NORMAN SILVERBERG, Centre d'Etudes Universi
teit, Utrecht, The Netherlands and Astro taires de Rimouski, Universite du Quebec,
physical Institute, Vrije Universiteit, Brussels. Rimouski, Quebec, Canada.
Belgium.
SERGEI L. TROITSKIY, Institute of Geology and
MARK L. HOLMES, Department of Oceanography.
Geophysics, Siberian Division, Academy of
University of Washington, Seattle, Washing
Sciences of the U.S.S.R.. Novosibirsk.
ton 98105, U.S.A.
U.S.S.R.
DAVID M. HOPKINS, U.S. Geological Survey, 345
Middlefield Road. Menlo Park, California PETER R. VOGT, U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office.
94025. U.S.A. Washington, D.C. 20373, U.S.A.
vii
Contents
Preface ...................................................................... v CHAPTER 8
Recent Sediments of the East Siberian Sea ..... 191
Contributors ........................................................... vii
FREDERIC P. NAUGLER, NORMAN
SILVERBERG, and JOE S. CREAGER
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 9
Physical Oceanography of Arctic and
Holocene History of
Subarctic Seas .......................................................... 1
the Laptev Sea Continental Shelf ..................... 211
LAWRENCE K. COACHMAN and KNUT
MARK L. HOLMES and JOE S.
AAGAARD
CREAGER
CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 10
Topography of the Arctic Ocean ........................ 73 Sediment Distribution in Deep Areas of
YVONNE HERMAN the Northern Kara Sea ....................................... 231
JOHN A. ANDREW and JOSEPH H.
CHAPTER 3 KRAVITZ
Tectonic History of the Arctic Basins:
CHAPTER 11
Partial Solutions and Unsolved Mysteries ......... 83
Subarctic Pleistocene Molluscan Fauna .......... 257
PETER R. VOGT and OTIS E. AVERY
SERGEI L. TROITSKIY
CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 12
Tectonic Setting and Cenozoic Sedimentary The Neogene Period in
History of the Bering Sea ................................... 119 the Subarctic Sector of the Pacific .................... 271
C. HANS NELSON, DAVID M. YURI B. GLADENKOV
HOPKINS, and DAVID W. SCHOLL
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 5 Arctic Ocean Sediments, Microfauna, and the
Geological Oceanography of Climatic Record in Late Cenozoic Time ......... 283
the Bering Shelf ................................................... 141 YVONNE HERMAN
GHANSHYAM D. SHARMA
CHAPTER 14
Atmospheric Circulation during the Onset and
CHAPTER 6
Maximum Development of the Wisconsin/Wiirm
Holocene Sedimentary Framework, East-Central
Ice Age ................................................................. 349
Bering Sea Continental Shelf ............................. 157
HUBERT HORACE LAMB
HARLEY J. KNEBEL, JOE S. CREAGER,
and RONALD J. ECHOLS
CHAPTER 15
Possible Causes of Glaciations .......................... 359
CHAPTER 7
EDWARD PETER JACOBUS VAN DEN
Sedimentation in the Beaufort Sea:
HEUVEL and PETER BUURMAN
A Synthesis ........................................................... 173
ANGI SATYANARAYAN NAIDe Index .................................................................... .379
ix
Chapter 1
Physical Oceanography
of Arctic and Subarctic Seas1
L. K. COACHMAN2 AND K. AAGAARD2
"From all these considerations it appears unquestionable that the sea around the Pole is fed with
considerable quantities ofw ater, partly fresh, ... partly salt, ... proceeding from the different ocean
currents. "
F. Nan sen, Naturen, March 1891
I. Introduction about 3 X 1019 g of new sea ice each year, of
which about 40% is in the northern hemisphere
(Shumskiy et aI., 1964). The average yearly thick
The Arctic Ocean (Fig. 1) surrounds the ness of new ice added to the perennial ice cover is
North Pole and is bordered by Europe, Siberia, about 50 cm (Untersteiner, 1964), or 0.4 X 1019 g,
Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. It is a large basin and thus the remaining two-thirds, 0.8 X 1019 g, is
(9.5 X 106 km2), in area about four times larger formed from open sea water. This growth takes
than the Mediterranean Sea, connected primarily place largely in the areas peripheral to the central
with the Atlantic Ocean via the major water Arctic basin, as these areas become open in
bodies of the Greenland and Norwegian Seas and summer, but some ice is formed on leads that
Baffin Bay, which also lie in. the Arctic. Techni occur throughout the pack even during winter
cally, the Arctic Ocean is probably not an ocean (Zubov, 1945).
but rather a mediterranean sea of the Atlantic, as The general oceanographic consequences of a
recognized by the oceanographic pioneers from perennial or seasonal ice cover are:
Norway (in Norwegian: Nordpolarhavet = North (1) The water temperature of the near-surface
Polar Sea). The various Arctic basins do, however, layer in the presence of ice is always maintained
attain depths similar to those of the oceans close to the freezing point for its salinity by the
(-4000 m), and time and convention have dic change-of-phase process.
tated our present nomenclature. (2) Salt is excluded from the ice to a varying
A feature contributing to the oceanographic extent, but the water under the ice is always
uniqueness of the Arctic is the ice of the sea. Sea enriched in salt by any ice growth. The depend
ice covers an average of 26 X 106 km2 of the ence of water density on temperature and salinity
earth's surface, about 7% of the total ocean area, (Fig. 2) is such that close to the freezing point
and of this about 10 x 106 km2 (40%) lies in the density is almost solely a function of salinity.
Arctic. However, large seasonal tluctuationscreate Therefore, ice formation can increase the density
locally and some vertical convection may result.
I Contribution No. 626 from the Department of Oceanog (3) In the transfer of momentum from the
raphy, University of Washington.
2 Department of Oceanography, University of Washing atmosphere to the ocean, the wind must act on the
ton, Seattle, Washington 98105, U.S.A. sea through the intermediary of the ice.
1
2 Marine Geology and Oceanography of the Arctic Seas
Methodology mobility and of extended spatial coverage on a
The presence of ice requires that the method short time scale are major drawbacks to such a
ology of arctic oceanographic investigations be scheme, although permanent drifting stations have
somewhat different from those in the open sea. certainly not outlived their usefulness.
This comes about not only in a prohibitive sense, The second category of ice platform use
with the ice impeding both ship and surface contains the attempts to circumvent the difficulties
travel; but also in an enabling sense, with the ice mentioned above by using multiple mobile scien
providing an endless supply of steady economical tific parties, ferried about by aircraft. This tech
observational platforms. nique was pioneered by the Soviet high-latitude
The use of such platforms can historically be aerial expeditions (A.N .-1.1., 1946) and has re
categorized in three ways. The first is the estab cently flowered also in the western world (Coach
lishment of single drifting stations intended for man and Smith, 1971).
long-term occupancy. This has been done either The third category involves the placement of
with a ship embedded in the ice, such as the Fram automated data-gathering equipment on the ice.
(Nansen, 1902), or by using an actual ice flow, The technique is still in its infancy, the only
such as with North Pole I (Shirshov, 1944). Lack of system presently in general use being the Soviet
DEPTH IN FATHOMS
Fig. 1. Bathymetry of the Arctic Ocean (depths in fathoms) and location of the six stations of Fig. 4 (from Sater,
1969).
Physical Oceanography of Arctic and Subarctic Seas 3
-1.0r------.------r------,,------..
-----._.r_--~--,__.r_--~~
-1.2
..,.
III \0 r-. co
N N N N N
0U -1.4 e e IeI e IeI
af
f!
CI>
Q.
E
~ -1.6
-1.8
-2.0L-----~-----L----~------ll-----~~---L--~~----~
Salinity 0/00
Fig. 2. Density and freezing point at one atmosphere pressure as a function of temperature and salinity.
Sigma - t (a,) = [density at I atm., in gm cm-3 - I) X lCP.
DARMS (Drifting Automatic Radiometeorologi notably the north edge of the continental shelf
cal Stations) (Olenicoff, 1971). within the Arctic Ocean, detailed information is
A liability of any drifting observational site is lacking. The major physiographic features, with
of course that the observations lie neither in a suggested standard nomenclature, are reported by
Lagrangian nor an Eulerian frame of reference. Beal et al. (1966).
Nevertheless, the optimal use of the ice as an The continental shelf on the North American
observational platform for oceanographic pur side of the Arctic Ocean is narrow (50 to 90 km),
poses has thus far not been approached. whereas the half bounded by Europe and Siberia
No surface vessel can operate freely in the is very broad (>800 km) and shallow, with
central Arctic, whereas submarines for many peninsulas and islands splitting it into five margi
purposes would be eminently suitable for oceano nal seas-the Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Sibe
graphic research because of their size, speed, and rian, and Chukchi. Even though these marginal
navigational capability (Lyon, 1961). The practi seas occupy 36% of the area of the Arctic Ocean,
cability of making oceanographic observations they contain only 2% of its volume of water. All
from a pressurized submarine compartment was in the major continental rivers reaching the Arctic
fact demonstrated already in 1931, on the Nautilus Ocean, with the exception of the Mackenzie in
expedition (Sverdrup, 1933). northern Canada and the Yukon, which enters via
As in the rest of the world ocean, we may the Bering Sea and the Bering Strait, flow into
expect that a variety of methodologies will be these seas. Thus these shallow seas, with a high
required to effect solutions to the various oceano ratio of exposed surface to total volume and with
a substantial input of fresh water in summer,
graphic problems. An assessment of the applica
greatly influence surface water conditions in the
bility of possible platforms to physical oceano
Arctic Ocean.
graphic research in the Arctic has been made by
The continental shelf is indented by numer
Coachman (1968).
ous submarine canyons, including the very large
Svataya Anna and Voronin Canyons in the north
II. Physical Features ern Kara Sea and the much smaller Herald and
Barrow canyons in the Chukchi Sea (Fig. 1). The
northern edge of the continental shelf, particularly
Central Arctic
in the Laptev and East Siberian Seas and along
The bathymetry of the Arctic basins (Fig. 1) the Canadian Archipelago, is poorly surveyed,
is now generally known, though in certain areas, and undoubtedly there are canyons yet to be
4 Marine Geology and Oceanography of the Arctic Seas
defined. The oceanographic importance of these
The Advection Boundaries
canyons is that they act as preferential pathways
for egress of water from the relatively warm The Bering Strait is the only connection
Atlantic layer onto areas of the continental shelf, between the Arctic system and the Pacific. I t is
where it comes within the influence of strong very shallow, with a sill depth of about 45 m, and
mixing processes, and hence can locally modify narrow, about 85 km. The Strait is open in
the surface waters and ice cover (see below). summer, but from October until June it is typi
The Lomonosov Ridge, with a sill depth of cally ice-clogged so that navigation is possible
about 1400 m, divides the Polar Basin into two only by icebreaker-and even these vessels have
deep basins, the Eurasian toward Europe (4200 m) not always been able to navigate in the area in
and the Canadian* toward North America (3800 winter. Conducting oceanography from the ice
m). The latter is further subdivided by the Alpha surface does not appear to be a realistic considera
Rise, which runs parallel to the Lomonosov Ridge tion, because the ice is broken and in rapid motion
at 500 km distance. for considerable distances north and south of the
Strait. Attempts have been made to assess the
transport through the eastern channel by means of
Greenland and Norwegian Seas (Fig. 3) electromagnetic induction in a cable (Bloom,
1964), and attempts are also continuing to main
The continental shelf along eastern Green tain bottom-mounted current, temperature, and
land south to 77°N is broad (300 km) and salinity sensors (Bloom, personal communication).
contains a system of banks of less than 200 m During summer, current measurements have been
depth. South of 77°N the shelf narrows until at made from anchored vessels and moored buoys
75 oN it is less than 100 km wide, and except in the (Coachman and Aagaard, 1966).
Denmark Strait it remains thus to the southern tip The Canadian Arctic Archipelago consists of
of Greenland. The shelf is marked by several deep some 16 passages connecting the Arctic and
indentations. Atlantic Oceans, ranging in width from 10 to 120
At 710N the Jan Mayen Ridge extends to km, and in depth to over 700 m (Collin, 1963). In
ward Greenland, with a maximum depth between northern Baffin Bay the number of passages is
Greenland and Jan Mayen of about 1500 m. East reduced to three (see, e.g. Muench, 1971). Two of
of Jan Mayen the ridge (in this area called the these-Nares Strait (sill depth 250 m) and Lancas
Mohn Rise) continues northeastward toward Sval ter Sound (sill depth 130 m)-seem to be impor
bard, with a sill depth of about 2600 m. This ridge tant for the exchange of water, while the third,
system effects the separation of the Greenland Sea J ones Sound, is of lesser importance. These areas
to the north from the Norwegian Sea to the south. are navigable only in summer. They are probably
The central Greenland Sea has two deep basins, not navigable even by icebreaker in winter, except
the northernmost about 3200 m deep and the within the semipermanent polynya (northwater) at
southernmost about 3800 m. (Eggvin's [1963] the south end of Nares Strait. Moorings with
chart shows one very deep sounding of 4845 m in current meters attached have been made here
the northernmost basin.) Physiography and no (Day, 1968). It seems probable that oceanography
menclature of the Greenland Sea is given in could be done from the ice surface in winter in
Johnson and Eckhoff (1966). most of these areas.
A ridge also extends south from Jan Mayen, On the Eurasian side of the Arctic system the
effectively separating a basin to the west with passage between Spitsbergen and Greenland is
depths over 2200 m from the larger main N orwe both wide (about 600 km) and deep (sill depth
gian Sea basin to the east. The area between about 2600 m). The eastern side, west to about the
Iceland and Jan Mayen is sometimes referred to prime meridian, is navigable throughout much of
as the Iceland Sea (Stefansson, 1962). The deep the year, though probably considerable difficulty
basin of the Norwegian Sea is compound, with the would be encountered in winter. The western side
northern part extending to about 3500 m and the is perennially ice-covered, though vessels have
southern to over 3900 m. penetrated north of 800N to near Greenland on at
least two occasions from August to September
• Here we take exception to the nomenclature of Beal et
al. (1966) in preferring "Canadian" (or "Canada") to "Amer (the ~b' in 1956 and the Edisto in 1964). Winter
asian" for this basin. oceanographic observations were obtained during