Elemental analysis (TC, TOC, IC) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD) data from Core PS72/392-5 (Canada Basin, Arctic Ocean)

On a 700 km long transect at about 80° 30' N from the Canada Basin across the central Mendeleev Ridge into the Makarov Basin 10 sediment cores were retrieved during Polarstern Expedition PS72 (Jokat, 2009), including Core PS72/392-5 (80°28.01'N, 158°50.46'W; 3621 m water depth). This core is a re-coring of Clark et al. (1980)'s key Core FL-224 (Stein et al., 2010a). The predominent lithology is silty clay (to sandy silty clay) of brown to dark brown, light to dark yellowish brown, and light olive brown colours. In the upper about 2.5 m, more sandy intervals, dropstones, and mud clasts occur (Stein et al., 2009, 2010a). The most prominent features of all cores recovered on the PS72 transect across Mendeleev Ridge are colour cycles of brown to dark brown and light olive brown to yellowish brown sediments occurring down to the bottom of the cores, and specific marker horizons (i.e., pink-white and white layers). Based on the visual core description, the standard lithological units A to M developed by Clark et al. (1980) using several hundred of short sediments cores collected from Ice Island T-3 (or Fletcher's Ice Island) in the Amerasian Basin, could also be identified in the PS72 sediment cores from the central Mendeleev Ridge transect as well. Following Clark et al. (1980), the content of sand-sized material (enriched in units C, F, H, J, L, and parts of M) and the pink-white (dolomite-rich) layers were considered to be the key sedimentary characteristic used for correlation of these lithostratigraphic units and indicative for input ice-rafted debris (IRD) during tims of extended glaciations (Stein et al., 2009, 2010a, 2010b). This very specific coarse-grained and dolomite-rich lithology can be related to a restricted source area in the Canadian Arctic (Bank Island, Victoria Island) where Paleozoic carbonates (dolomite) are cropping out, and it can be interpreted as pulses of increased iceberg discharge due to the disintegration of extended Canadian glacial ice sheets (e.g., Clark et al., 1980; Vogt, 1997; Phillips and Grantz, 2001; Stein et al., 2010a, 2010b). […]