Influence of northwest Pacific productivity on North Pacific Intermediate Water oxygen concentrations during the Bølling-Ållerød interval (14.7–12.9 ka)
- 1U.S. Geological Survey, 384 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA
- 2School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3P6, Canada
- 3Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA
- 4Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA
- 5Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, University of Versailles St Quentin, LSCE, Domaine du CNRS F91198 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France
Abstract
Elevated productivity in the northwest Pacific is suggested as a new possible control driving past intervals of low-O2 intermediate water along the western continental margin of North America. According to this mechanism, O2 consumption would occur near the site of formation of North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW), due to increased respiration of organic carbon in response to a high-productivity event. Evidence is provided for such a productivity increase during the Bølling-Ållerød interval (14.7–12.9 ka), a time when laminated sediments were deposited along the northern California margin. By this mechanism, low-O2 events in intermediate waters off the western North American margin could occur without significant changes in the rate of NPIW ventilation.
Footnotes
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↵*jcrusiususgs.gov
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- Accepted March 17, 2004.
- Received February 2, 2004.
- Revision received March 16, 2004.
- Geological Society of America
