Box Coring Artifacts in Sediments Affected by a Waste Water Outfall

Variations in porosity of surface sediments are often the major cause of sediment loss during gravity and box coring. Sediments with a high content of organic matter usually have higher porosity, and thus, lower resistance (strain) towards mechanical disturbance. Here, we demonstrate that box coring artifacts (i.e. sediment loss and core shortening) can be produced in sediments from the Palos Verdes (PV) shelf, which in the past had received relatively high loads of organic carbon (OC) enriched particulate matter originating from the Whites Point outfall that had created a high porosity layer at depth. This has been overlooked as a possibility for obtaining low estimates of sediment and pollutant accumulation rates. Since any such sediment loss during coring can lead to serious underestimates of sedimentation rates, our results here may have important implications for any attempts at reconstructing pollutant fluxes and histories in these coastal marine sediments.