Origin, Development, and Transport of Arctic Sea Ice

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This project is the investigation of the redistribution of sediment and pollutants over the Arctic basin through transport by sea ice, a heretofore neglected aspect of the depositional history of the arctic sea ice and ocean bottom. It will focus on the reconstruction of sediment and pollutant incorporation mechanisms, as well as the origin, development, and transport history of individual floes. The study will concentrate on the Beaufort Gyre, where the ice is relatively old, and where individual floes may have significantly different histories. Multiple variables that include the physical properties of the sea ice and the sediments, the contaminant chemistry, and the isotopic oxygen analysis, will be combined in an analysis for the origin, development, and transport history of sea ice in the Amerasian Basin. The work can potentially develop techniques for distinguishing on the basis of the combined indicators between ice formed in the Canadian or Siberian sectors of the Arctic Ocean, and provide information on such questions as how widely distributed is ice with an apparent river signal (relative depletion of oxygen-18), and does it tend to have greater contaminant loads.