RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES, VOL. 19, ES2008, doi:10.2205/2019ES000658, 2019
V. V. Sivkov, L. D. Bashirova, E. V. Dorokhova, M. V. Kapustina, E. P. Ponomarenko
The sediment drift north of the Kane Gap has been investigated by means of the seismoacoustic profiling. The surface area of the drift is about 500 km$^2$ and maximal thickness is 70 m. The contourite drift was formed under the control of the Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) flow in the Kane Gap. It is suggested naming this contourite fan as the "Kane Drift". Variations in the activity of the AABW current were registered in the sediment core ANS-33056, retrieved near the summit of the drift. For this purpose, the mean size of sortable silt ($\overline{SS}$, mineral fraction 10–63 $\mu$m) was used. It was shown that during the Mid-Pleistocene to Holocene, the speed of the AABW flow north of the Kane Gap was not strictly determined by the alternation of the climatic cycles. A strong relationship between the AABW flow and the short-time climatic fluctuations was found only during the marine isotope stages (MIS) 4 and 5: intensification of the near-bottom current coincides with the cold intervals. Moreover, during the Terminations II and I (MIS 2/1 and MIS 6/5, respectively), the intensity of the current also increased. Maximal near-bottom current activity was registered at the end of the MIS 2.
Received 10 September 2018; accepted 25 October 2018; published 19 April 2019.
Citation: Sivkov V. V., L. D. Bashirova, E. V. Dorokhova, M. V. Kapustina, E. P. Ponomarenko (2019), Study of the Contourite Drift north of the Kane Gap (eastern equatorial Atlantic), Russ. J. Earth Sci., 19, ES2008, doi:10.2205/2019ES000658.
Copyright 2019 by the Geophysical Center RAS.