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Geochemical composition of Tanzanian shelf sediments indicates Holocene climatic and sea-level changes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2017

Xiting Liu ,
Rebecca Rendle-Bühring  and
Rüdiger Henrich
Xiting Liu*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China MARUM–Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Faculty of Geosciences, University of Bremen, D-28359 Bremen, Germany
Rebecca Rendle-Bühring
Affiliation:
MARUM–Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Faculty of Geosciences, University of Bremen, D-28359 Bremen, Germany
Rüdiger Henrich
Affiliation:
MARUM–Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Faculty of Geosciences, University of Bremen, D-28359 Bremen, Germany
*
*Corresponding author at: Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China. E-mail address: liuxtcn@gmail.com (X. Liu).
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Abstract

We present a high-resolution geochemical and grain-size record from a Holocene sediment core off the Pangani River mouth, Tanzania. Elemental ratios between biogenic elements and Al (i.e., Ca/Al, Mg/Al, and Sr/Al) are mainly influenced by terrigenous dilution on carbonate concentration and/or limitation of carbonate production as a result of variations in the supply of fine-grained terrigenous sediments of the Pangani River. Such elemental ratios increased significantly at the end of the mid-Holocene between 5 and 3.5 ka, demonstrating a gradual transition from the humid early and mid-Holocene to the arid late Holocene in East Africa. Among the elemental ratios between terrigenous elements and Al, Si/Al and K/Al ratios correlate to grain-size variation, indicating a change in sedimentation regime. Fe/Al and Ti/Al ratios show that the sediment source area has shifted from the terrestrial volcanic region of Tanzania (Fe, Ti rich) to the coastal and inner-shelf regions (Fe, Ti poor) around 7.5 ka, in response to arid climate and high sea level. Our geochemical results correspond with a sea-surface temperature record derived from the same sediment core, indicating that the end of the East African Humid Period could have been gradual and related to the cooling water in the western Indian Ocean.

Keywords

X-ray fluorescenceGrain sizeEast AfricaRelative sea levelHolocene
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 87 , Issue 3 , May 2017 , pp. 442 - 454
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2017 

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