Although the Cretaceous period is known to have been dominated by greenhouse conditions, the Early Cretaceous climatic conditions in Svalbard have been under some debate. Both indicators of warm climate such as coal seams, Ornithopod tracks and warm-water dinoflagellates, and indicators of cold climate such as arctic belemnites, glendonites and ice rafted debris have been reported. This study ...

This study is focused on mineralogical and chemical characterization of an authigenic carbonate rock (crust) collected at a recently discovered cold seep on the US North Atlantic continental margin. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicate that the carbonate rock is composed of microcrystalline aragonite cement, white acicular aragonite crystals (AcAr), equant quartz ...

Large rock slope deformations potentially evolving into catastrophic rock avalanches pose an eminent threat to the Norwegian society. A comprehensive characterization of their kinematic behavior, progressive slope development, and current deformation rates are thus required for hazard management. Njunnás and Piggtind/Skulvatindane are two adjacent rock slopes located in Troms County, Norway. Both ...

Cold seeps are locations where seafloor communities are influenced by the seepage of methane and other reduced compounds from the seabed. We examined macro-infaunal benthos through community analysis and trophic structure using stable isotope analysis at 3 seep locations in the Barents Sea. These seeps were characterized by high densities of the chemosymbiotic polychaetes Siboglinidae, clade Frenulata ...

The last deglaciation, 20,000–10,000 years ago, was a period of global warming and rapidly shrinking ice sheets. It was also climatically unstable and retreats were interrupted by re-advances. Retreat rates and timing relative to climatic changes have therefore been difficult to establish. We here study a suite of 12 marine sediment cores from Storfjorden and Storfjorden Trough, Svalbard. The purpose ...

Multi-proxy analysis of gravity core PS56/029-1 have been performed in order to describe sedimentary processes and dynamics under pelagic, turbiditic and contouritic influences. The purpose is to reconstruct climate-controlled environmental change in the Riiser Larsen Sea, Antarctica, through past glacial/interglacial cycles. The gravity core was retrieved during expedition ANTARKTIS XVII/2 of R/V ...

Antarctica’s continental margins pose an unknown submarine landslide-generated tsunami risk to Southern Hemisphere populations and infrastructure. Understanding the factors driving slope failure is essential to assessing future geohazards. Here, we present a multidisciplinary study of a major submarine landslide complex along the eastern Ross Sea continental slope (Antarctica) that identifies ...

Rare CO2 flux measurements from Arctic pack ice show that two types of ice contribute to the release of CO2 from the ice to the atmosphere during winter and spring: young, thin ice with a thin layer of snow and older (several weeks), thicker ice with thick snow cover. Young, thin sea ice is characterized by high salinity and high porosity, and snow-covered thick ice remains relatively warm ( >  −7.5 °C) ...

Despite their high abundance and diversity, microfossil taxa adapted to a particular chemosynthetic environment have rarely been studied and are therefore poorly known. Here we report on an ostracod species, Rosaliella svalbardensis gen. et sp. nov., from a cold methane seep site at the western Svalbard margin, Fram Strait. The new species shows a distinct morphology, different from other ...

We present the results of a pilot study that integrates automated drill core scanning technology based on simultaneous X-ray computed tomography (XCT) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses to provide high-spatialresolution (<0.2 mm) information on 3-D rock textures and structures, chemical composition, and density. Testing of its applicability for mineral exploration and research was performed by ...