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Varves in Marine Sediments: a Review

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Varves in Marine Sediments: a Review Earth-Science Reviews 159 (2016) 215–246 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Earth-Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/earscirev Varves in marine sediments: A review Arndt Schimmelmann a,⁎,CarinaB.Langeb, Juergen Schieber a,PierreFrancusc, Antti E.K. Ojala d, Bernd Zolitschka e a Indiana University, Department of Geological Sciences, 1001 E 10th Street, Bloomington, IN 47405-1405, USA b Departamento de Oceanografía, Centro COPAS Sur-Austral and Centro FONDAP-IDEAL, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile c Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique and GEOTOP Research Center, Québec-City, Québec G1K 9A9, Canada d Geological Survey of Finland, FI 02151, Espoo, Finland e Geomorphology and Polar Research (GEOPOLAR), Institute of Geography, University of Bremen, Celsiusstraße FVG-M, D-28359 Bremen, Germany article info abstract Article history: The global compilation of reported marine varved sedimentary records throughout the Quaternary contains 52 Received 16 May 2015 sites. Marine varve deposition and preservation typically depend on environmental and sedimentological condi- Received in revised form 14 April 2016 tions, such as a sufficiently high sedimentation rate, severe depletion of dissolved oxygen in bottom water to Accepted 21 April 2016 exclude bioturbation by macrobenthos, and a seasonally varying sedimentary input to yield a recognizable rhyth- Available online 26 April 2016 mic varve pattern. Additional oceanographic factors include the strength and depth range of the Oxygen Keywords: Minimum Zone (OMZ) and regional anthropogenic eutrophication from point sources such as large polluted riv- Annual lamination ers. Quaternary marine varves are not only found in those parts of the open ocean that comply with these condi- Chronology tions, but also in fjords, embayments and estuaries with thermohaline density stratification, and nearshore Eutrophication ‘marine lakes’ with strong hydrologic connections to ocean water. This review critically describes settings and Oxygen minimum zone sedimentological characteristics of marine sites where varves have been reported. Broader applications of marine Paleoceanography varve records are discussed, for example in terms of radiocarbon calibration on high-resolution time scales, Varve constraining paleoceanographic variability and global change teleconnections, diagnosing factors affecting mod- ern fish population dynamics based on past performance, detailing biogeochemical cycles, and deciphering com- plex factors influencing marine productivity. Varves in saline water bodies without hydrologic connection to the global ocean are not included in this review and instead pertain to the companion review on lacustrine varves where also general and fundamental principles of varve deposition, classification, and dating are covered (Zolitschka et al., 2015). The postulated occurrence of varves in pre-Quaternary rocks is critically discussed in this review with represen- tative examples. In the case of non-evaporitic laminations in fine-grained ancient marine rocks, such as banded iron formations and black shales, laminations may not be varves but instead may have multiple alternative ori- gins such as event beds or formation via bottom currents that transport and sort silt-sized particles, clay floccules, and organic-mineral aggregates in the form of migrating bedload ripples. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction.............................................................. 216 2. Modernoceanographicsettingssupportingtheformationandpreservationofvarves............................. 217 2.1. OMZimpingement....................................................... 217 2.2. Density stratificationofthewatercolumn............................................. 221 2.3. Eutrophication......................................................... 221 2.4. Restrictedlagoonsandembayments............................................... 221 2.5. Stratification breakdown and ‘Fall Dump’ ............................................. 221 2.6. Ancientvarve-depositionalenvironmentswithoutmodernanalog.................................. 221 Abbreviations: BSEI, Backscattered Scanning Electron Imaging; IODP, Integrated Ocean Drilling Program; NGRIP, North Greenland Ice Core Project; ODP, Ocean Drilling Program; OMZ, Oxygen Minimum Zone; OSL, Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating; SEM, Scanning Electron Microscopy; XRF, X-Ray Fluorescence. ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A. Schimmelmann), [email protected] (C.B. Lange), [email protected] (J. Schieber), [email protected] (P. Francus), antti.ojala@gtk.fi (A.E.K. Ojala), [email protected] (B. Zolitschka). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.04.009 0012-8252/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 216 A. Schimmelmann et al. / Earth-Science Reviews 159 (2016) 215–246 3. OccurrencesofmarinevarvesintheQuaternary.............................................. 221 3.1. Alaska,USA........................................................... 222 3.2. AntarcticMargin......................................................... 222 3.3. ArabianSeaoffPakistan..................................................... 223 3.4. BalticSea,SwedenandFinland.................................................. 223 3.5. BeringSea........................................................... 225 3.6. BlackSea............................................................ 226 3.7. BritishColumbiacoast,Canada.................................................. 226 3.8. CaliforniaBorderland,SantaBarbaraBasin,USA........................................... 227 3.9. CariacoBasin,Venezuela..................................................... 229 3.10. Celtic-ArmoricanMargin,BayofBiscay,offFrance......................................... 230 3.11. Greenland,SermilikFjord.................................................... 230 3.12. GulfofCalifornia,Mexico.................................................... 230 3.13. JapanSea........................................................... 232 3.14. Mediterranean......................................................... 232 3.15. Namibia,BenguelaCurrent,southeastAtlantic........................................... 235 3.16. Northern-CentralCaliforniaMargin,USA............................................. 236 3.17. NorwegianSea......................................................... 236 3.18. PeruvianMargin........................................................ 237 3.19. PettaquamscuttRiverestuary,RhodeIsland,USA......................................... 237 3.20. Québec,Canada........................................................ 237 3.21. RedSearegion......................................................... 237 3.22. SvalbardArchipelago...................................................... 237 3.23. Tayestuary,Scotland...................................................... 237 3.24. WhidbeyIsland,Washington,USA................................................ 238 4. Marinevarvesreportedinpre-Quaternarygeologicalrecords........................................ 238 4.1. Evidence from experimental deposition of finelylaminatedmud................................... 239 4.2. Examplesofpostulatedvarvesinmarinepre-Quaternarymarinerocks................................ 240 5. Outlook................................................................ 241 Acknowledgements............................................................. 241 References................................................................. 242 1. Introduction On a global scale, the area and volume of marine varved sediment outweigh the combined lacustrine varved sediments both in modern Marine varves are finely laminated sediments with seasonally alter- times and through geologic time, although there are an order of magni- nating components that have been deposited from marine or brackish tude more lakes with varved sediments than varved regions in the glob- waters in connection with the global ocean. Varve sequences are natural al ocean. For example, the extensive area of modern varve deposition in archives of paleoenvironmental conditions that offer accurate internal the Black Sea alone results in an annual depositional volume of Black Sea time control in calendar years, exceptionally high temporal resolution (no mixing, as for corals, tree rings, and ice cores) and the possibility to calculate flux rates. Varve records can typically provide longer-term perspectives on environmental dynamics than those made available by shorter instrumental records that usually do not cover N100 years, and can thus offer detailed information for the reconstruction of paleoenvironments and competent advice in the development of envi- ronmental policy. The connectedness to the global ocean greatly extends the spatial relevance of marine varved sites relative to those of lacustrine varved sites because lakes are influenced by local geology, hydrology, and land use in their catchment areas. For example, one varved sediment core from a marine drill site can sometimes be correlated with parallel cores over distances of tens to N1000 km (e.g., in the Permian Castile Formation and the modern Black Sea; Fig. 1; Anderson et al., 1972; Arthur et al., 1994), whereas varved lake records are typically more re- stricted in areal coverage. In contrast to lacustrine varves' sensitive re- cording of local and regional environmental changes on land, many coastal and open-marine varve records provide
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