Contamination of 8.2 ka cold climate records by the Storegga tsunami in the Nordic Seas.

ABSTRACT: The 8200-year BP cooling event is reconstructed in part from sediments in the Norwegian and North Seas. Here we show that these sediments have been reworked by the Storegga tsunami - dated to the coldest decades of the 8.2 ka event. We simulate the maximum tsunami flow velocity to be 2-5 m/s on the shelf offshore western Norway and in the shallower North Sea, and up to about 1 m/s down to a water depth of 1000 m. We re-investigate sediment core MD95-2011 and found the cold-water foraminifera in the 8.2 ka layer to be re-deposited and 11,000 years of age. Oxygen isotopes of the recycled foraminifera might have led to an interpretation of a too large and dramatic climate cooling. Our simulations imply that large parts of the sea floor in the Norwegian and North Seas probably were reworked by

SUBMITTER: Bondevik S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10995125 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature