scholarly journals Hipercorig – an innovative hydraulic coring system recovering over 60 m long sediment cores from deep perialpine lakes

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 29-41
Author(s):  
Ulrich Harms ◽  
Ulli Raschke ◽  
Flavio S. Anselmetti ◽  
Michael Strasser ◽  
Volker Wittig ◽  
...  

Abstract. The record of past environmental conditions and changes archived in lacustrine sediments serves as an important element in paleoenvironmental and climate research. A main barrier in accessing these archives is the undisturbed recovery of long cores from deep lakes. In this study, we have developed and tested a new, environmentally friendly coring tool and modular barge, centered around a down-the-hole hydraulic hammering of an advanced piston coring system, called the Hipercorig. Test beds for the evaluation of the performance of the system were two periglacial lakes, Mondsee and Constance, located on the northern edge of the Alpine chain. These lakes are notoriously difficult to sample beyond ∼ 10 m sediment depths due to dense glacial deposits obstructing deeper coring. Both lakes resemble many global lake systems with hard and coarse layers at depth, so the gained experience using this novel technology can be applied to other lacustrine or even marine basins. These two experimental drilling projects resulted in up to 63 m coring depth and successful coring operations in up to 204 m water depth, providing high-quality, continuous cores with 87 % recovery. Initial core description and scanning of the 63 m long core from Mondsee and two 20 and 24 m long cores from Lake Constance provided novel insights beyond the onset of deglaciation of the northern Alpine foreland dating back to ∼ 18 400 cal BP.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongbo Wang ◽  
Xuezhi Ma ◽  
Zhenyu Ni

<p>Large earthquakes are regarded as important contributors to long-term erosion rates and considerable hazard to infrastructure and society, which were difficult to track because of the long recurrence time exceeding the time span of historical records. Geological records, especially the continuously accumulated lacustrine sediments, hold the potential to capture signals of prehistoric seismic events, which has been barely reported from the Tibetan Plateau. Here we present lacustrine sediment records recovered from Basom Tso in Southeastern Tibetan Plateau, in which two seismic events were preserved. Sediment lithology, grain size composition, magnetic susceptibility and XRF scanning induced element compositions showed dramatic variations in two turbidite-like sediment segments. Particularly, the grain size showed an abrupt increase at the bottom of the Turbidites which was followed by a fining-up pattern and covered by a fine clay cap, expressing similar sedimentary processes caused by the seiche effect triggered by seismic events. Consistent patterns were recorded in the element contents as well, i.e. obvious bias in the counts of Fe, Zr, Ti, Ca. In addition, scuh pattern were preserved in sediment cores from different part of the lake basin, indicating a basin wide event layer. Finally, according to the dating results from <sup>137</sup>Cs and <sup>14</sup>C, the two Turbidites were formed around 1950 A.D. and during the late18<sup>th</sup>/early 19<sup>th</sup> century respectively. Such information was further confirmed by historical earthquake records that Chayu Earthquake (M=8.6, 1950 A.D.) and Nyingchi Earthquake (M=6.75, 1845 A.D.) have possibly responsible for the slump of underwater sediments and the formation of these two turbidites.</p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janusz Dworniczak ◽  
Radosław Wróblewski ◽  
Stanisław Rudowski ◽  
Patryk Sitkiewicz ◽  
Malwina Bieszk

Bottom structure of the basins in the Port of Gdynia, Poland, was analysed based on the archival materials of the Department of Operational Oceanography of Marine Institute in Gdańsk, particularly seismic profiles and macroscopic descriptions of sediment cores. Seismic profiling and core collection were performed in selected basins and within the fairway. The rich source material was used to draw a detailed bathymetric map of the bottom of the basins, a map of surface sediments, and a synthetic geological cross-section. A considerable variation in bottom depth within the analysed basins was observed. Bedrock sediments comprised Miocene sands and silts covered with glacial and fluvioglacial sediments, which reach the surface of the water, especially in the central part of the fairway. Within the eastern part of the fairway, fluvioglacial sediments are covered with marine sediments related to the Littorina transgression. Within the inner port and in the outport, a series of glacial and fluvioglacial sediments are covered with a thick (about 10 m) series of glaciolacustrine and lacustrine sediments, which in turn is covered with fluvial and deltaic sediments. The surface of the bottom is composed of contemporary, anthropogenically modified sediments. The map of surface sediments of the bottom corresponds to the geological map on the horizon of about 10 meters beneath land surface.


2020 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-422
Author(s):  
Mateusz Kramkowski

This paper presents the matter of the environmental reconstruction of laminated lacustrine sediments from the Younger Dryas through to the present day, in particular in respect of microlithofacial analysis and sedimentation rate. Lake Jelonek is located within the Tuchola Pine Forest of northern Poland (at 53°45’58N, 18°23’30E). It occupies a subglacial channel immediately adjacent to the Wda Valley. The lake covers 19.9 ha and has a maximum depth of 13.8 m. In 2014, overlapping sediment cores JEL14 (14.23 m) were collected from that deepest part, in order for a full sediment profile including the younger Dryas and the Holocene to be created. Most of the sediment is found to be laminated. Sedimentation rate was reconstructed for the lake, along with microlithofacial variability of different sections of the sediment. The results obtained were related to an age depth model based on 14 AMS radiocarbon dates, varve chronology and the Askja AD 1875 cryptotephra; and was correlated with pollen profiles. The Holocene sediment record of Lake Jelonek exhibits differences between low and high sedimentation rate intervals and varved and non-varved intervals. From the beginning of the Holocene through to the Subatlantic period, sedimentation proved to be a stable phenomenon. However, in the Subatlantic period, the average sedimentation rate increased to 7.7 mm per year from 2.2 mm, with maximum rates even reaching 15.3 mm/year. This period is reflected in a lack of lamination and the appearance of redeposited deposits. These changes prove particularly sensitive to local impact, with distinct alternations of low and high sedimentation rates and varved and non-varved intervals. The most probable drivers for the observed variability reflect a combination of changes of climate plus anthropogenic deforestation during periods of settlement that enhanced the sensitivity of the lake to wind stress. A summary of all analyses allowed for the identification of periods of rapid change in sedimentation, and – indirectly – for the reproduction of changes in the water level and anthropopressure in and around Lake Jelonek. Such results contribute to a better understanding of local influences on fluctuations in lake sedimentation processes characteristic for the north of Poland, but also Central Europe more widely.


2019 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendra K. McLauchlan ◽  
Ioan Lascu ◽  
Emily Mellicant ◽  
Robert J. Scharping ◽  
Joseph J. Williams

AbstractGeosphere-biosphere interactions are ubiquitous features of the Earth surface, yet the development of interactions between newly exposed lithologic surfaces and colonizing plants during primary succession after glaciation are lacking temporal detail. To assess the nature, rate, and magnitude of vegetation influence on parent material and sediment delivery, we analyzed ecosystem and geochemical proxies from lacustrine sediment cores at a grassland site and a forested site in the northern United States. Over time, terrigenous inputs declined at both sites, with increasing amounts of organic inputs toward present. The similarities between sites were striking given that the grassland sequence began in the Early Holocene, and the forested sequence began after the last glacial maximum. Multiple mechanisms of chemical weathering, hydrologic transport, and changes in source material potentially contribute to this pattern. Although there were strong links between vegetation composition and nitrogen cycling at each site, it appears that changes in forest type, or from oak woodland to grassland, did not exert a large influence on elemental (K, Ti, Si, Ca, Fe, Mn, and S) abundance in the sedimentary sequences. Rather, other factors in the catchment-lake system determined the temporal sequence of elemental abundance.


2007 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly C. Jacobs ◽  
Sherilyn C. Fritz ◽  
James B. Swinehart

AbstractIn the central Great Plains of North America, loess stratigraphy suggests that climate during the late Pleistocene was cold and dry. However, this record is discontinuous, and there are few other records of late-Pleistocene conditions. Cobb Basin, located on the northern edge of the Nebraska Sand Hills, contains lacustrine sediments deposited during Marine Isotope Stage 3, beginning approximately 45,000 cal yr BP and continuing for at least 10,000 yr. The lake was formed by a dune dam blockage on the ancient Niobrara River, and its deposits contain a diatom record that indicates changes through time in lake depth driven by changes in effective moisture. During the earliest stages of lake formation, the climate was arid enough to mobilize dunes and emplace dune sand into a blocking position within the Niobrara streambed. Diatom assemblages suggest that lake-level was shallow at formation, increased substantially during a wet interval, and then became shallow again, as arid conditions resumed. By about 27,000 cal yr BP the lake was filled, and a shallow ephemeral river occupied the basin.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehrdad Sardar Abadi ◽  
Christian Zeeden ◽  
Arne Ulfers ◽  
Katja Hesse ◽  
Thomas Wonik

<p>Lacustrine sediments are archives of past environmental conditions. In recent decades, multinational ICDP efforts have conducted lake drilling projects to encode the potential of paleoclimate signals. Gamma-ray spectroscopy is a particularly useful tool as it is non-destructive, fast, and affordable even in cased boreholes. Gamma radiation can be used to identify elemental isotopes in the geological record, which is used for stratigraphic correlation and paleoclimatic investigations. </p><p>However, some lake sediments contain tephra layers with specific gamma-ray signatures, presenting a challenge for extracting the primary signals caused by environmental and climatic agents. Here, we use the sediments of Lake Chalco in central Mexico to propose a protocol to identify tephra layers embedded in other sediments using high-resolution spectral gamma-ray spectroscopy. This facilitates dividing the overall sediment column into representative horizons of tephra and non-tephra.</p><p>Among the upper 300 m of the lake deposit, our index detected 363 tephra layers, while 388 total tephra layers (≥1 mm in thickness) were reported from the core description of the same borehole, predicting 92% of tephra layers documented in the lake deposits from core descriptions. We suggest that not only the strength of the gamma-ray signal but also the composition of its constituent energy channels can be used to detect embedded tephra layers.</p>


1999 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric M. Leonard ◽  
Mel A. Reasoner

AbstractSediment cores from three proglacial lakes in northern Banff National Park, Alberta, preserve a record of Holocene glacial activity upvalley which is more continuous and better dated than available surficial records. Dating of the cores is based on tephrochronology and 16 AMS14C ages of terrestrial macrofossils. All cores contain a threefold sequence of lacustrine sediments overlying a late Pleistocene diamicton. Basal lacustrine sediments >10,10014C yr old contain little organic matter. Sediment composition indicates a large glacigenic contribution. A sharp increase in organic content marks the beginning of the Altithermal interval at all three lakes. This transition occurred abruptly at about 10,10014C yr B.P. at Crowfoot Lake and possibly more gradually at the other lakes. Altithermal sediments contain relatively little glacigenic material, and during most of the Altithermal, glaciers may have been absent above Crowfoot and Bow Lakes. Glaciers draining into Hector Lake appear to have persisted through the Altithermal. A subsequent decrease in organic content in each lake, reflecting increased clastic sedimentation, marks the end of the Altithermal and the onset of Neoglacial ice advances. The transition took place between about 5800 and 400014C yr B.P. and may be time-transgressive, beginning earlier in Hector Lake than in Crowfoot Lake. Changing Neoglacial clastic sedimentation rates through the Neoglacial interval indicate two main periods of increased glacier extent, between ca. 3000 and 1800 varve yr ago (ca. 2900–190014C yr B.P.) and during the last several hundred years. During the intervening period glaciers were less extensive, but much more extensive than during the recessions of the Altithermal interval.


2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Retelle

ABSTRACT Sediment cores recovered from three high arctic coastal lake basins contain a sequence of glaciomarine sediments overlain by laminated to massive-bedded lacustrine sediments. Glaciomarine sediments were deposited while the basins were isostatically depressed below sea level. Subsequent to emergence of the basin from the sea, lacustrine sediments accumulated in each basin. A transitional fades between the marine and lacustrine units represents an isolation interval during which trapped sea water lay beneath a freshwater lens. Sedimentological and faunal evidence from sediment cores demonstrates that embayments were closed and fluvial sedimentation was minimal during the glacial maximum (ca. 8000-8200 BP) Subsequent increases in sand content and macrofaunal abundance reflects increases in mobility of sea ice and fluvial input during the middle Holocene. Late HoIocene cooling trends are demonstrated by decreases in ice rafted material and an increase in diffuse bedding in lake surface sediments.


2015 ◽  
Vol 85 (12) ◽  
pp. 1455-1465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina Kremer ◽  
Juan Pablo Corella ◽  
Thierry Adatte ◽  
Emmanuel Garnier ◽  
gregor Zenhäusern ◽  
...  

Abstract:  Turbidites in lacustrine sediments are commonly used to assess the frequencies of flood events and/or earthquakes. Understanding the origin of those deposits is key to adequately assess the sources and triggers of such events in large lacustrine systems. Ca/Ti X-ray fluorescence core scanner and magnetic susceptibility values on sediment cores of the deep basin of Lake Geneva are used as a provenance indicator of the turbidites either from the Dranse or Rhone deltas or from the slopes not influenced by deltaic input. This tool is validated by mineralogical analyses (X-ray diffraction), major-, and trace-element geochemistry (X-ray fluorescence). Based on this discrimination method, the turbidites deposited in the central part of the deep basin can be classified regarding their origin. From all identified turbidites, four turbidites are chosen based on their large depositional area and volumes and are studied in more detail in order to better understand the processes leading to turbidite deposition in the deep basin. The age intervals of these turbidites were compared to the historical records of extreme events in the region of Lake Geneva. These turbidites can be related to extreme floods, earthquakes, and “spontaneous” delta collapses. The cause of two turbidites could not be identified precisely due to large dating intervals that did not allow attributing a specific historical event to the turbidite layer. Overall, this study provides a tool in classifying the turbidites in deep Lake Geneva and exemplifies that defining the cause of turbidites is complex although it remains a prerequisite for paleohydrology and paleoseismology studies.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Bačić ◽  
Nevenka Mikac ◽  
Mavro Lučić ◽  
Ivan Sondi

Abstract The appearance and vertical distribution of technology-critical elements (TCE) such as Li, Nb, Sc, Ga, Y, La, Sb, Ge, Te, and W were investigated in sediment cores taken in pristine freshwater and marine lakes located within protected areas of Croatia (Plitvice Lakes, Visovac Lake, and Mir Lake). These lake systems are isolated from the direct impact of human activities, and accordingly, the geochemical research in such environments may help to assess temporal trends in historical deposition of anthropogenic TCE. The analytical method of choice in determining the concentration of TCEs was High resolution inductively coupled plasma - mass spectrometry (HR ICP-MS). The results obtained have shown that the measured TCE spanned with wide ranges of concentrations, as a result of the different input of terrigenous material into the investigated lake systems which is further diluted by the formation of authigenic and biogenic carbonates. Evaluation of the anthropogenic impact on TCE levels showed low enrichment of Sb and Te in the upper sediment layers of the Mir Lake and the Plitvice Lakes. Despite that, concentrations of investigated TCE were low, compared to results described in the literature, indicating that the investigated remote lakes can be considered uncontaminated with these elements.


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