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Upper quaternary laminated sapropelic sediments from the continental slope of Baja California

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Abstract

Core MD02-2508 retrieved from the plateau of the continental slope off Baja California recovered a 40-m-thick section of sapropel (up to 15% Corg), calcareous clay, and diatom ooze with the age of 120 ka at the core bottom. The section is subdivided into three units: Unit I (Holocene) consists of the laminated sapropel; Unit II comprising oxygen isotope stages (MIS) 2, 3, and 4 is represented by homogeneous calcareous clay with interbeds of slightly siliceous sapropelic mud; and Unit III (MIS-5) is composed of laminated sapropelic diatom ooze. Laminated intervals are characterized by the intercalation of two lamina types: (1) dark-colored organic-rich laminae containing multi-species “oceanic” diatom assemblages, as well as radiolarians, coccoliths, planktonic and benthic foraminifera; (2) lighter-colored laminae consisting of diatom ooze with the neritic colonial diatom assemblages commonly composed of one to three species of a single genera. The dark laminae are assumed to be generated within a high productivity zone over the slope, whereas light ones likely represent diatom mats produced by short-term boisterous phytoplankton blooms, possibly in the coastal upwelling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nakhimovskii pr. 36, Moscow, 117997, Russia

    I. O. Murdmaa, G. H. Kazarina, E. V. Ivanova, G. N. Alekhina & V. E. Vasileva

  2. CEREGE, University Aix-Marseille, Aix en Provance, France

    L. Beaufort

  3. Atlantic Branch of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Mira 1, Kaliningrad, 236000, Russia

    E. M. Emelyanov & V. A. Kravtsov

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  1. I. O. Murdmaa
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  2. G. H. Kazarina
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  3. L. Beaufort
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  4. E. V. Ivanova
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  5. E. M. Emelyanov
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  6. V. A. Kravtsov
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  7. G. N. Alekhina
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  8. V. E. Vasileva
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Correspondence to I. O. Murdmaa.

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Original Russian Text © I.O. Murdmaa, G.H. Kazarina, L. Beaufort, E.V. Ivanova, E.M. Emelyanov, V.A. Kravtsov, G.N. Alekhina, V.E. Vasileva, 2010, published in Litologiya i Poleznye Iskopaemye, 2010, No. 2, pp. 171–191.

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Murdmaa, I.O., Kazarina, G.H., Beaufort, L. et al. Upper quaternary laminated sapropelic sediments from the continental slope of Baja California. Lithol Miner Resour 45, 154–171 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0024490210020057

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