A New Chronology of Late Quaternary Sequences From the Central Arctic Ocean Based on Extinction Ages'' of Their Excesses in 231Pa and 230Th

Merging the late Quaternary Arctic paleoceanography into the Earth's global climate history remains challenging due to the lack of robust marine chronostratigraphies. Over ridges notably, low and variable sedimentation rates, scarce biogenic remains ensuing from low productivity and/or poor preservation, and oxygen isotope and paleomagnetic records differing from global stacks represent major impediments. However, as illustrate here based on consistent records from Mendeleev-Alpha and Lomonosov Ridges, disequilibria between U-series isotopes can provide benchmark ages. In such settings, fluxes of the particle-reactive U-daughter isotopes Th-230 and Pa-231 from the water column, are not unequivocally linked to sedimentation rates, but rather to sea-ice rafting and brine production histories, thus to the development of sea-ice factories over shelves during intervals of high relative sea level. The excesses in Th-230 and Pa-231 over fractions supported by their parent U-isotopes, collapse down sedimentary sequences, due to radioactive decay, and provide radiometric benchmark ages of approximately 300 and 140 ka, respectively. These extinction ages'' point to mean sedimentation rates of similar to 4.3 and similar to 1.7 mm/ka, respectively, over the Lomonosov and Mendeleev Ridges, which are significantly lower than assumed in most recent studies, thus highlighting the need for revisiting current interpretations of Arctic lithostratigraphies in relation to the global-scale late Quaternary climatostratigraphy.