The Opening of the Fram Strait and its influence on sediment transport, climate and ocean circulation between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic

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The Neogene opening and subsequent widening of the Fram Strait, the only deep-water connection between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, was a fundamental tectonic event with extensive consequences for the global ocean circulation and paleoclimate evolution as well as for sedimentation processes in the adjacent ocean basins and along the continental margins. Combining the hereby accumulated sediment archives with seismic mapping and with stratigraphic information from existing DSDP/ODP drill cores will help to unravel the evolution of this deep ocean gateway on tectonic time scales (100.000-1.000.000 yrs). The seismostratigraphic interpretation of sedimentary structures will hence give valuable information on the regional tectonic, oceanographic and paleoclimatic development of this area, amongst others on the glacial history of the Northern Hemisphere. To achieve this, we will use AWI seismic reflection data from the Fram Strait that partially need to be reprocessed. Additionally, we will use external (BGR, NPD, GEUS) seismic reflection data from the adjacent and conjugate continental margins, respectively, that were lately made accessible to us. Our main goal is to identify distinct sediment accumulation mechanisms based on seismic reflection patterns and internal sedimentary geometries. With this information, in turn, we can reconstruct tectonic processes as well as changes in the oceanic circulation in the Fram Strait. Published age models (some of them clearly to be revised during our project) and lithologies from DSDP/ODP sites 343, 642/643, 909, 910, 912 und 913 are substantial in dating seismic reflectors as well as characterizing the seismic units lithologically.