High-resolution record reveals climate-driven environmental and sedimentary changes in an active rift

authored by

Lisa C McNeill, Donna J Shillington, Gareth D O Carter, Jeremy D Everest, Robert L Gawthorpe, Clint Miller, Marcie P Phillips, Richard E L Collier, Aleksandra Cvetkoska, Gino De Gelder, Paula Diz, Mai-Linh Doan, Mary Ford, Maria Geraga, Jack Gillespie, Romain Hemelsdaël, Emilio Herrero-Bervera, Mohammad Ismaiel, Liliane Janikian, Katerina Kouli, Erwan Le Ber, Shunli Li, Marco Maffione, Carol Mahoney, Malka L Machlus, Georgios Michas, Casey W Nixon, Sabire Asli Oflaz, Abah P Omale, Kostas Panagiotopoulos, Sofia Pechlivanidou, Simone Sauer, Joana Seguin, Spyros Sergiou, Natalia V Zakharova, Sophie Green

Abstract

Young rifts are shaped by combined tectonic and surface processes and climate, yet few records exist to evaluate the interplay of these processes over an extended period of early rift-basin development. Here, we present the longest and highest resolution record of sediment flux and paleoenvironmental changes when a young rift connects to the global oceans. New results from International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 381 in the Corinth Rift show 10s–100s of kyr cyclic variations in basin paleoenvironment as eustatic sea level fluctuated with respect to sills bounding this semi-isolated basin, and reveal substantial corresponding changes in the volume and character of sediment delivered into the rift. During interglacials, when the basin was marine, sedimentation rates were lower (excepting the Holocene), and bioturbation and organic carbon concentration higher. During glacials, the basin was isolated from the ocean, and sedimentation rates were higher (~2–7 times those in interglacials). We infer that reduced vegetation cover during glacials drove higher sediment flux from the rift flanks. These orbital-timescale changes in rate and type of basin infill will likely influence early rift sedimentary and faulting processes, potentially including syn-rift stratigraphy, sediment burial rates, and organic carbon flux and preservation on deep continental margins worldwide.

External Organisation(s)

Kiel University
University of Southampton
Columbia University
British Geological Survey
University of Bergen (UiB)
Rice University
University of Texas at Austin
University of Leeds
Justus Liebig University Giessen
Universite Paris 7
Universidad de Vigo
University Grenoble-Alpes (UGA)
CRPG Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques
University of Patras
University of Adelaide
Université Montpellier
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
University of Hyderabad
Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo
University of Athens
University of Leicester
China University of Geosciences
University of Birmingham
New York University (NYU)
Technological Educational Institute of Crete (TEI CRETE)
Louisiana State University
University of Cologne

Type

Article

Journal

Scientific Reports

Volume

9

ISSN

2045-2322

Publication date

28.02.2019

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 13 - Climate Action, SDG 14 - Life Below Water

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40022-w (Access: Open)