Reconstruction of paleoenvironmental conditions in Equatorial Atlantic and the Gulf of Guinea Basins for the last 245.000 years.

Abstract

The Niger fan Deep-sea core GeoB 4901-8 (02°40.7'N, 006°43.2'E: water depth 2184 m) was studied to give information about the source and pathway of terrigenous materials into the fan area, the climate change over western central Africa and to have insight to the response of the surface ocean in the Gulf of Guinea during the last 245,000 years. Based on the concentration profiles of terrigenous source elements in this core, the terrigenous components are dominantly river suspended material with maximum sediment input to the ocean occurring during cold and arid periods. At higher resolution, the X-ray fluorescence (XRF) of the terrigenous element (Fe, Ti) intensities and the stable oxygen isotope (g18 O) of Globigerinoides ruber (pink) and Globigerinoides sacculifer were measured. The isotopic curves and the XRF counts show oscillating climatic conditions in the late Quaternary.