Geology topics

L. Granina

Publications and source records attributed to L. Granina.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS1997

Preliminary results of the first scientific Drilling on Lake Baikal, Buguldeika site, southeastern Siberia

The Baikal Drilling Project (BDP) is a multinational effort to investigate the paleoclimatic history and tectonic evolution of the Baikal sedimentary basin during the Late Neogene. In March 1993 the Baikal drilling system was successfuly deployed from a barge frozen into position over a topographic high, termed the Buguldeika saddle, in the southern basin of Lake Baikal. The BDP-93 scientific team, made up of Russian, American and Japanese scientists, successfully recovered the first long (>100 m) hydraulic piston cores from two holes in 354 m of water. High quality cores of 98 m (Hole 1) and 102 m (Hole 2), representing sedimentation over the last 500,000 years, were collected in 78 mm diameter plastic liners with an average recovery of 72% and 90%, respectively. Magnetic susceptibility logging reveals an excellent hole-to-hole correlation. In this report the scientific team describes the preliminary analytical results from BDP-93 hole 1 cores. Radiocarbon dating by accelerator mass spectrometry provides an accurate chronology for the upper portion of Hole 1. Detailed lithologic characteristics, rock magnetic properties and inorganic element distributions show a significant change to the depositional environment occuring at 50 m subbottom depth, approximately 250,000 BP. This change may be due to uplift and rotation of the horst block in the Buguldeika saddle. The sedimentary section above 50 m is pelitic with varve-like laminae, whereas the section below 50 m contains a high proportion of sand and gravel horizons often organized into turbidite sequences. Accordingly, high resolution seismic records reveal a change in sonic velocity at this depth. It is inferred that sedimentation prior to 250 ka BP was from the west via the Buguldeika river system. After 250 ka BP the Buguldeika saddle reflects an increase in hemipelagic sediments admixed with fine-grained material from the Selenga River drainage basin, east of Lake Baikal. Variations in the spore-pollen assemblage, diatoms, biogenic silica content, rock magnetic properties, clay mineralogy and organic carbon in the upper 50 m of BDP-93-1 reveal a detailed record of climate change over approximately the last 250,000 years. These variables alternate in a pattern characteristic of glacial/interglacial climatic fluctuations. The present age model suggests that the climate signal recorded in Lake Baikal sediments is similar to Late Quaternary signals recorded in Chinese loess sections and in marine sediments.

Siberia↗

USGS1997

Biogeochemical phosphorus mass balance for Lake Baikal, southeastern Siberia, Russia

Extensive data for Lake Baikal have been synthesized into a geochemical mass balance for phosphorus (P). Some of the P budget and internal cycling terms for Baikal have been compared to similar terms for oligotrophic Lake Superior, mesotrophic Lake Michigan and the Baltic Sea, and the Ocean. Lake Baikal has a large external source of fluvial P compared to the Laurentian upper Great Lakes and the Ocean. The major tributary to Lake Baikal has experienced substantial increases in organic P loading during the past 25 years. This, coupled with potential P inputs from possible phosphorite mining, may threaten Baikal's oligotrophic status in the future. Water-column remineralization of particulate organic P is substantially greater in Lake Baikal than in the Laurentian Great Lakes. This is probably due to the great water depths of Lake Baikal. There is a gradient in P burial efficiency, with very high values (80%) for Lake Baikal and Lake Superior, lower values (50%) for Lake Michigan and the Baltic Sea, and a low value (13%) for the Ocean. The accumulation rate of P in Lake Baikal sediments is somewhat greater than that in the Laurentian upper Great Lakes and the Baltic Sea, and much greater than in the Ocean. Benthic regeneration rates are surprisingly similar for large lacustrine and marine environments and supply less than 10% of the P utilized for primary production in these aquatic environments.

Marine Geology↗

USGS1997

Formation of ferric iron crusts in Quaternary sediments of Lake Baikal, Russia, and implications for paleoclimate

Phosphate-bearing, ferric iron and siliceous crusts ranging in age from Recent to approximately 65,000 yr B.P. are observed in sediments of Lake Baikal. In younger sediments the crusts are at the base of a spectrum of secondary iron and manganese oxides that accumulate near the sediment/water interface in the zone of positive oxidation potential beneath an oxygenated water column. In areas where the average Quaternary sedimentation rates have been slow (e.g. 0.026 mm/yr), the crusts are more common, and span a wider range of ages. No crusts have been found where the Quaternary sedimentation mode has been deltaic and rapid (0.15 mm/yr). Independent core correlation based on magnetic properties of the sediment suggests that crusts can be correlated over most of Academician Ridge, an area that is particularly sensitive to climatic events affecting the concentration of suspended sediment. These crusts may be indicative of periods of low suspended sediment concentration, which occur during sustained transitions from glacial periods of high detrital input, to interglacial periods of high diatom sedimentation. The crusts are dominated by iron-rich and siliceous amorphous mineral phases, with an FeO:SiO2 by weight of 3:1. Regardless of age or location in the lake the Fe phase always includes Ca, P and Mn. Extensive microprobe data for these four elements recast as normalized elemental weight percent reveal linear trends of Ca:P and Fe:P. With increasing P, Ca also increases such that the two elements maintain a linear relationship passing very close to the origin and with a mean molar Ca:P=0.3 (too low for well-characterized apatite). Conversely, with increasing P, Fe decreases (mean molar Fe:P=3.4). There is no correlation between Mn and P. Molar Fe:P ratios for vivianite (an Fe(II) phosphate mineral observed in sediments closely below some crusts) are clustered around a stoichiometric composition. The covariant increase in Ca:P and the corresponding decrease in Fe:P may be explained by: (1) coupled adsorption of aqueous Ca and P by a colloidal ferric hydrous oxide; (2) loss of Fe from a Ca-P-Fe phase; or (3) oxidation of vivianite to a metastable mineral phase that gradually loses Ca and gains Fe. The first explanation is favored, because there is no petrographic evidence for either the existence of an originating Ca-P-Fe phase, or, for the oxidation of vivianite. Further, it is suggested that by continually equalizing surface charge, Ca allows more phosphate to be adsorbed leading to thicker crusts and longer preservation after burial.

Marine Geology↗

USGS1997

Geochemical mass balances of major elements in Lake Baikal

Major element mass balances for Lake Baikal are calculated with mostly previously published data for soluble fluxes and new, unpublished data for riverine suspended particulate matter chemistry. Physical transport seems to be the most important riverine process. The elements Ca, Mg, and Na seem to be very mobile in the weathering mantle and K and Si seem to be relatively mobile. A comparison of elemental input-output budgets and mass accumulation rates (MAR) in bottom sediments shows that most major elements, except Ca, Si, and Mn, have comparable riverine particulate matter fluxes and MARs. The addition of wet atmospheric deposition fluxes results in an excess of Ca, Mg, and Na entering the lake. The additive effect of these excess inputs during a 40-year period amounts to undetectable concentration increases in the water column. If erosion of weathered bedrock is the source of most dissolved and all particulate matter transported to the lake, theoretical elemental fluxes can be calculated with Al as the conservative element. Flux ratios (observed/theoretical) range from 0.7 to 2.2, but most fall within the acceptable range of 0.7-1.5. Major rock-forming elements are carried by rivers as weathering products and there are minimal biogeochemical processes that modify these inputs as suspended particulate matter accumulates in the bottom sediments of the lake.

Limnology and Oceanography↗