BOSCORF receives important core donation from ANCAP and BG Group

BOSCORF has received 800 m of sediment cores from the Uruguay continental slope donated by ANCAP and BG Group.  The UK currently hold no cores from the Uruguay slope and the donation represents a >£6M in-kind investment in terms of ship time that NERC will not need to fund.  The cores will be available for collaborative, curiosity-driven research both with BG Group and through independent projects.

The Uruguay slope is an important, albeit relatively poorly known, sedimentological province.  It encompasses the northern margin of the Rio de la Plata estuary and the connecting Mar and Rio de la Plata Canyons. It also forms the northwestern edge of the Argentine Basin, which is dominated by the shallow (>0.5 km depth) southward flowing Brazilian Current.  The Brazilian Current overlies northward flowing Antarctic Intermediate Water and Upper Circum-Polar Deep Water, which together extend down to 2 km. Below this northward flowing water, the southern extension of North Atlantic Deep Water lies against the slope. These northward- and southward flowing currents have built large sediment drifts along the slope, meaning the cores potentially offer valuable insights into contourite sedimentology and the potential to resolve past changes in the currents that formed these deposits.  The cores donated represent a range of sediment types and a range of water depths from 800 - 3000 m.

Google map showing core locations on the Uruguay continental slope

These cores thus promise to be of considerable scientific interest, both in terms of studies of the down-slope and along slope transport and for palae- oceanographic research.  Indeed, specifically, the cores may contribute to better understanding of

  • how the Brazil Current, Antarctic Intermediate Water, Upper Circum-Polar Deep Water and North Atlantic Deep Water have varied since the last glaciations
  • how these currents respond to changes on other parts of the Earth system on the same timescales
  • how down- and alongslope sediment transport interacts on complex continental slopes
  • how contourite architecture and facies distributions relate to multiple vertically stacked and counter-flowing bottom currents

Research into these questions will benefit the UK in two ways.  Firstly, the balance of flow within the Antarctic Intermediate Water and North Atlantic Deep Water is key to regulating the strength of northern advection in the Atlantic, hence the strength of the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic drift, critical to UK climate.  Secondly, better knowledge of geostrophic versus gravity systems is key to understanding the deepwater hydrocarbon frontier.

The ANCAP and BG donated cores from the Uruguay slope arrive at BOSCORF

The new cores in BOSCORF ready for splitting and racking

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