• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.249-259
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• 2014

Proxies for paleo-circulation are drawing much interest with the recognition that ocean circulation plays an important part in the redistribution of heat and climate change on orbital and millennial timescales. In this review, we will introduce how neodymium isotope ratios of the authigenic fraction of marine sediments can be used as a proxy for ocean circulation along with analytical methods and two case studies. The first case study shows how the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) has varied over the glacial-interglacial and stadial-interstadial periods. The second case study shows how the freshwater budget and water circulation within the Arctic Ocean can be reconstructed for the last glacial period.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.281.1-281
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• 2001

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.89-102
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• 2023

Climate and environmental changes in the Arctic Ocean due to global warming have been linked to extreme climate change in mid-latitude regions, including the Korean Peninsula, requiring a better understanding of the Arctic climate system based on the paleo-analog. This review introduces three paleoenvironmental research cases using neodymium isotopes (¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd, ε_Nd) measured on two different fractions of marine sediments: silicate-bound 'detrital' and Fe-Mn oxide-dominated 'authigenic' fractions. In the first case, detrital ε_Nd in core HH17-1085-GC on the continental shelf off northern Svalbard was used for tracing changes in sediment provenance and associated glacier behavior over the last 16.3 ka. The second case showed the potential use of authigenic ε_Nd as a quasi-conservative water mass tracer. Three prominent ε_Nd peaks and troughs observed in core PS72/410-1 from the Mendeleev Ridge in the western Arctic Ocean over the past 76 ka suggested episodic meltwater discharge events during 51~46, 39~35 and 21~13 ka BP. The last case proposed the use of the difference between authigenic and detrital ε_Nd as a proxy for reconstructing glacier fluctuation. The idea is based on the assumption that enhanced glacial erosion during glacier advances can supply sufficient freshly-exposed rock substrate for incongruent weathering, potentially leading to greater isotopic decoupling between bedrock and dissolved weathering products as recorded in detrital and authigenic ε_Nd, respectively. Thus, it would be worthwhile to take advantage of sedimentary ε_Nd to improve our understanding of past environmental changes in polar regions.