Sediment provenance of late Quaternary morainic, fluvial and loess‐like deposits in the southwestern Verkhoyansk Mountains (eastern Siberia) and implications for regional palaeoenvironmental reconstructions

A provenance analysis of late Quaternary deposits from tributaries of the Aldan and Lena rivers in Central Yakutia (eastern Siberia) was carried out using analysis of heavy minerals and clay mineralogy. Cluster analysis revealed one assemblage that is characterized by relatively high proportions of amphibole, orthopyroxene and garnet as well as pedogenic clay minerals, reflecting a sediment provenance from the wide catchment area of the Lena and Aldan rivers. In contrast, the three other clusters are dominated by stable heavy minerals with varying amounts of clinopyroxene, apatite and garnet, as well as high percentages of illite and chlorite that are indicative of source rocks of the Verkhoyansk Mountains. Glacial moraines reveal the local mountain source signal that is overprinted by the Lena‐Aldan signal in the oldest moraines by reworking processes. Alluvial sediments in the Verkhoyansk Foreland show a clear Lena source signal through intervals of the middle and late Pleistocene, related to a stream course closer to the mountains at that time. Loess‐like cover sediments are characterized by the dominant Lena provenance with increasing proportions of local mountain sources towards the mountain valleys. Aeolian sands in an alluvial terrace section at the mountain margin covering the time between 30 ka and 10 ka BP reflect temporarily dominant inputs of aeolian materials from the Lena Plains. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  H. Meyer,et al.  Palaeoclimate signals as inferred from stable‐isotope composition of ground ice in the Verkhoyansk foreland, Central Yakutia , 2006 .

[2]  R. Spielhagen,et al.  History of freshwater runoff across the Laptev Sea (Arctic) during the last deglaciation , 2005 .

[3]  V. S. Oxman.  Tectonic evolution of the Mesozoic Verkhoyansk–Kolyma belt (NE Asia) , 2003 .

[4]  V. Romanovsky,et al.  Reconstruction of ice complex remnants on the eastern Siberian arctic shelf , 2003 .

[5]  G. Kuhn,et al.  Late Quaternary variability of ocean circulation in the southeastern South Atlantic inferred from the terrigenous sediment record of a drift deposit in the southern Cape Basin (ODP Site 1089) , 2002 .

[6]  K. Kjær,et al.  Early and Middle Valdaian glaciations, ice-dammed lakes and periglacial interstadials in northwest Russia: new evidence from the Pyoza River area , 2001 .

[7]  A. Murray,et al.  The chronology of a large ice-dammed lake and the Barents–Kara Ice Sheet advances, Northern Russia , 2001 .

[8]  G. Kuhn,et al.  Provenance and dispersal of glacial-marine surface sediments in the Weddell Sea and adjoining areas, Antarctica: ice-rafting versus current transport , 1999 .

[9]  V. Rachold,et al.  Sediment transport to the Laptev Sea (Siberian Arctic) during the Holocene — evidence from the heavy mineral composition of fluvial and marine sediments , 1999 .

[10]  B. Diekmann,et al.  Petrographic and diagenetic signatures of climatic change in peri- and postglacial Karoo Sediments of SW Tanzania , 1996 .

[11]  Gerhard Kuhn,et al.  Clay mineral distribution in surface sediments of the South Atlantic: sources, transport, and relation to oceanography , 1996 .

[12]  A. R. H. Swan,et al.  Introduction to Geological Data Analysis , 1995 .

[13]  H. Grobe,et al.  Significance of clay mineral assemblages in the Antarctic Ocean , 1992 .

[14]  L. Parfenov.  Tectonics of the Verkhoyansk-Kolyma Mesozoides in the context of plate tectonics , 1991 .

[15]  C. Gravenor.  The nature of the Late Paleozoic glaciation in Gondwana as determined from an analysis of garnets and other heavy minerals: Reply , 1980 .

[16]  Pierre E. Biscaye,et al.  Mineralogy and Sedimentation of Recent Deep-Sea Clay in the Atlantic Ocean and Adjacent Seas and Oceans , 1965 .

[17]  F. Lehmkuhl,et al.  Luminescence chronology from the Verkhoyansk Mountains (North-Eastern Siberia) , 2007 .

[18]  A. Velichko,et al.  Cenozoic Climatic and Environmental Changes in Russia , 2005 .

[19]  F. Lehmkuhl,et al.  Pleistocene glacial advances in the Verkhoyansk Mountains, North-Eastern Siberia , 2005 .

[20]  M. N. Alekseev,et al.  Quaternary fluvial sediments in the Russian Arctic and Subarctic: Late Cenozoic development of the Lena River system, northeastern Siberia , 2004 .

[21]  E. Hoops.  Die Charakterisierung von Sedimenten der in die Laptev-See mündenden Flüsse anhand von Schwermineralverteilungen. , 1999 .

[22]  B. Peregovich,et al.  Distribution Patterns of Heavy Minerals in Siberian Rivers, the Laptev Sea and the Eastern Arctic Ocean: An Approach to Identify Sources, Transport and Pathways of Terrigenous Matter , 1999 .

[23]  N. N. Romanovskij.  Distribution of recently active ice and soil wedges in the USSR . , 1985 .