Surface sediment characteristics in the Drake Passage sector of the Southern Ocean

Based on a comprehensive set of surface sediment samples, we used spatial variations in grain-size distribution, bulk sediment mineralogy, silt and clay mineralogy across the entire DP region to elucidate the terrigenous sources and transport mechanisms.

The statistical evaluation of these data identifies southern Patagonia (carbonate, illite, chlorite, feldspar and quartz) and the Antarctic Peninsula (chlorite, smectite, and amphibole) as the main sources for terrigenous sediments in the DP region. Different current systems are transporting the sediment material. Here, we provide a new, robust flow speed calibration for silt grain-sizes to enable the reconstruction of Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) dynamics in the DP sector of the Southern Ocean.