Sedimentation in the Central Arctic Submarine Elevations: Results of Comprehensive Analysis of Paleomagnetic and Seismoacoustic Data

Abstract—

The age assignment to the Arctic Basin sediments is complicated by the insufficient microfauna in them. Under these conditions, the paleomagnetic method is the major method to determine age boundaries. This method was used to construct the first successful age model of Arctic sediments in the 1970s. In recent decades, a number of works made it possible to describe changes in natural remanent magnetization direction as a consequence of secondary geochemical processes, in fact, discrediting the possibility of applying paleomagnetism to the Arctic Basin sediments. Based on our research of natural remanent magnetization in sediment cores from the Central Arctic submarine elevations, the reference paleomagnetic horizons were determined reliably. The sedimentation rates at the Alpha and Mendeleev ridges was calculated to be low (<2 mm/kyr). Mean sedimentation rates increase toward the Lomonosov Ridge due to the influence of the Transpolar Drift and toward the shelf. Based on the comprehensive analysis of the paleomagnetic and seismoacoustic data, low sedimentation rates have been characteristic of the Mendeleev Ridge and Podvodnikov Basin since the Early Miocene.