This award supports marine geologic research to document sediment flux and accumulation on the proximal (fjord/shelf) environments off Kangerdlugssuaq Fjord, East Greenland, and to compare these with similar shelf/fjord environments along the Eastern Canadian Arctic margin and with margins of the Nordic Seas (as part of the international PONAM Project). This research will emphasize the study of present-day sediment processes and fluxes within this fjord and will develop a model of variations in sediment fluxes and physical and biological composition since the late glacial. This work will also emphasize the paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic variations with time. The research will target opal and diatom flux as well as benthic foraminifera as indicators of change in surface water productivity and bottom water conditions. A reconnaissance cruise to the fjord and inner shelf in the autumn 1991, on an Icelandic research vessel, will provide preliminary data regarding the sea floor morphology, shallow seismic structure, surface sediment characteristics, bio- and lithostratigraphy, sedimentology, stratigraphy, hydrology and suspended matter. A second cruise, on the Canadian research vessel Hudson, in 1992 will obtain side- scan sonar data, additional high-resolution Huntec DTS stratigraphy of the fjord basin, and long cores that will allow further delineation of the relationships between the seismic and core stratigraphy.
