Subglacial outburst floods and extreme sedimentary events in the Labrador Sea

Author(s):  
John Shaw ◽  
Jerome-Etienne Lesemann
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Lotte Melchior Larsen ◽  
David C. Rex ◽  
W. Stuart Watt ◽  
Philip G. Guise

NOTE: This article was published in a former series of GEUS Bulletin. Please use the original series name when citing this article, for example: Melchior Larsen, L., Rex, D. C., Watt, W. S., & Guise, P. G. (1999). 40Ar–39Ar dating of alkali basaltic dykes along the southwest coast of Greenland: Cretaceous and Tertiary igneous activity along the eastern margin of the Labrador Sea. Geology of Greenland Survey Bulletin, 184, 19-29. https://doi.org/10.34194/ggub.v184.5227 _______________ A 380 km long coast-parallel alkali basalt dyke swarm cutting the Precambrian basement in south-western Greenland has generally been regarded as one of the earliest manifestations of rifting during continental stretching prior to break-up in the Labrador Sea. Therefore, the age of this swarm has been used in models for the evolution of the Labrador Sea, although it has been uncertain due to earlier discrepant K–Ar dates. Two dykes from this swarm situated 200 km apart have now been dated by the 40Ar–39Ar step-heating method. Separated biotites yield plateau ages of 133.3 ± 0.7 Ma and 138.6 ± 0.7 Ma, respectively. One of the dykes has excess argon. Plagioclase separates confirm the biotite ages but yield less precise results. The age 133– 138 Ma is earliest Cretaceous, Berriasian to Valanginian, and the dyke swarm is near-coeval with the oldest igneous rocks (the Alexis Formation) on the Labrador shelf. A small swarm of alkali basalt dykes in the Sukkertoppen (Maniitsoq) region of southern West Greenland was also dated. Two separated kaersutites from one sample yield an average plateau age of 55.2 ± 1.2 Ma. This is the Paleocene–Eocene boundary. The swarm represents the only known rocks of that age within several hundred kilometres and may be related to changes in the stress regime during reorganisation of plate movements at 55 Ma when break-up between Greenland and Europe took place.


1998 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 163-167
Author(s):  
Antoon Kuijpers ◽  
Jørn Bo Jensen ◽  
Simon R . Troelstra ◽  
And shipboard scientific party of RV Professor Logachev and RV Dana

Direct interaction between the atmosphere and the deep ocean basins takes place today only in the Southern Ocean near the Antarctic continent and in the northern extremity of the North Atlantic Ocean, notably in the Norwegian–Greenland Sea and Labrador Sea. Cooling and evaporation cause surface waters in the latter region to become dense and sink. At depth, further mixing occurs with Arctic water masses from adjacent polar shelves. Export of these water masses from the Norwegian–Greenland Sea (Norwegian Sea Overflow Water) to the North Atlantic basin occurs via two major gateways, the Denmark Strait system and the Faeroe– Shetland Channel and Faeroe Bank Channel system (e.g. Dickson et al. 1990; Fig.1). Deep convection in the Labrador Sea produces intermediate waters (Labrador Sea Water), which spreads across the North Atlantic. Deep waters thus formed in the North Atlantic (North Atlantic Deep Water) constitute an essential component of a global ‘conveyor’ belt extending from the North Atlantic via the Southern and Indian Oceans to the Pacific. Water masses return as a (warm) surface water flow. In the North Atlantic this is the Gulf Stream and the relatively warm and saline North Atlantic Current. Numerous palaeo-oceanographic studies have indicated that climatic changes in the North Atlantic region are closely related to changes in surface circulation and in the production of North Atlantic Deep Water. Abrupt shut-down of the ocean-overturning and subsequently of the conveyor belt is believed to represent a potential explanation for rapid climate deterioration at high latitudes, such as those that caused the Quaternary ice ages. Here it should be noted, that significant changes in deep convection in Greenland waters have also recently occurred. While in the Greenland Sea deep water formation over the last decade has drastically decreased, a strong increase of deep convection has simultaneously been observed in the Labrador Sea (Sy et al. 1997).


1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russ E. Davis
Keyword(s):  

2019 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 100-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakesh Bhambri ◽  
Kenneth Hewitt ◽  
Prashant Kawishwar ◽  
Amit Kumar ◽  
Akshaya Verma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Richard Wright ◽  
James Carter ◽  
Deric Cameron ◽  
Tom Neugebauer ◽  
Jerry Witney ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaiheng Hu ◽  
Chaohua Wu ◽  
Li Wei ◽  
Xiaopeng Zhang ◽  
Qiyuan Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractLandslide dam outburst floods have a significant impact on landform evolution in high mountainous areas. Historic landslide dams on the Yigong River, southeastern Tibet, generated two outburst superfloods > 105 m3/s in 1902 and 2000 AD. One of the slackwater deposits, which was newly found immediately downstream of the historic dams, has been dated to 7 ka BP. The one-dimensional backwater stepwise method gives an estimate of 225,000 m3/s for the peak flow related to the paleo-stage indicator of 7 ka BP. The recurrence of at least three large landslide dam impoundments and super-outburst floods at the exit of Yigong Lake during the Holocene greatly changed the morphology of the Yigong River. More than 0.26 billion m3 of sediment has been aggraded in the dammed lake while the landslide sediment doubles the channel slope behind the dam. Repeated landslide damming may be a persistent source of outburst floods and impede the upstream migration of river knickpoints in the southeastern margin of Tibet.


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