• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.51-61
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• 2019

Clay minerals, a major component of mud volcano (MV) sediments, are expected to provide important information for characterizing mud volcano formation mechanisms, but clay minerals have rarely been studied. The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of 420 MV and surrounding marine sediments. Clay minerals and grain size were analyzed for 8 box cores from 420 MV and Mackenzie Trough. The relative proportions of the four major clay minerals in the Mackenzie Trough are almost constant in the order of illite, chlorite, kaolinite, and smectite, regardless of the distance from the Mackenzie River. However, the grain size tends to become fining as they move away from the Mackenzie River. Comparing the clay mineral characteristics of river (Colville River, Kuparuk River, Sagavanirktok River, Canning River, Mackenzie River) sediments entering the Beaufort Sea in order to determine the origin of the Mackenzie Trough and 420 MV sediments, the sediments of the Mackenzie Trough are characterized mainly by the Mackenzie River with a low ratio of smectite/illite and a high ratio of kaolinite/chlorite. In 420 MV sediments, the contents of clay minerals decrease in the order of illite, kaolinite, chlorite, and smectite, and the grain size with depth is almost constant. The content of smectite and coarse sediments is about two times higher than the reference core. No river with higher kaolinite content than chlorite exists in the Beaufort Sea, and the ratio of smectite/illite to kaolinite/chlorite is different from the reference core such as the ratio of the Mackenzie River. Compared to the reference core, the high contents of coarse sediments and the constant grain size with depth might be attributed to the ejection by MV. The reference core is interpreted as originating from Mackenzie River, and sediment of 420 MV is interpreted as originating from eruption of MV.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.15-29
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• 2021

In the Arctic Ocean, the distribution of sea ice and ice sheets changes as climate changes. Because the distribution of ice cover influences the mineral composition of marine sediments, studying marine sediments transported by sea ice or iceberg is very important to understand the global climate change. This study analyzes marine sediment samples collected from the Arctic Ocean and infers the provenance of the sediments to reconstruct the paleoenvironment changes of the western Arctic. The analyzed samples include four gravity cores collected from the Araon mound in the Chukchi Plateau and one gravity core collected from the slope between the Araon mounds. The core sediments were brown, gray, and greenish gray, each of which corresponds to the characteristic color of sediments deposited during the interglacial/glacial cycle in the western Arctic Ocean. We divide the core sediments into three units based on the analysis of bulk mineral composition, clay mineral composition, and Ice Rafted Debris (IRD) as well as comparison with previous study results. Unit 3 sediments, deposited during the last glacial maximum, were transported by sea ice and currents after the sediments of the Kolyma and Indigirka Rivers were deposited on the continental shelf of the East Siberian Sea. Unit 2 sediments, deposited during the deglacial period, were from the Kolyma and Indigirka Rivers flowing into the East Siberian Sea as well as from the Mackenzie River and the Canadian Archipelago flowing into the Beaufort Sea. Unit 2 sediments also contained an extensive amount of IRD, which originated from the melted Laurentide Ice Sheet. During the interglacial stage, fine-grained sediments of Unit 1 were transported by sea ice and currents from Northern Canada and the East Siberian Sea, but coarse-grained sediments were derived by sea ice from the Canadian Archipelago.