Geology

Climate change

Sedimentation

Physical geography

Geomorphology

Oceanography

Sound (geography)

Geography

Sediment

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences

In an attempt to determine to what extent the impact of recent climate changes that occurred east of Hudson Bay, including important reduction of areas in permafrost, had on the coastal marine environment, a series of shallow cores were extracted from the seabed off the mouth of the Sheldrake River, in Nastapoka Sound. A total of 25 cores were taken in April 2009 from the ice cover. A preliminary seafloor map was first done to help in the selection of the coring sites. Nastapoka Sound has a complex subaqueous relief, formed of asymmetric ridges and deep basins. After preliminary sedimentological analyses, six of the cores were selected for physical and chronological analyses (14C, 210Pb, and 137Cs dating); among them, three were selected for elemental (C, N, OC/TN) and isotopic (δ13C, δ15N) analyses to identify sedimentary organic matter sources. Sedimentation processes are complex and are primarily driven by bottom currents. This is confirmed by the absence of a clay fraction in several cores, some erosi...

Climate change and recent sedimentation in Nastapoka Sound, eastern coast of Hudson Bay