Geochemistry in an area recently uncovered from the Filchner ice shelf

Sediments were studied in the southern Weddell Sea (Antarctica) that had been both covered by the ice shelf prior to 1986 (ICS) and outside the ice shelf (IFS). The composition of particulate matter in these sediments shows that the sedimentation under the ice shelf is quantitatively similar to that outside the ice shelf, except that the former has a negligible content of easily degradable organic matter, indicating a very low biochemical activity. The210Pb profile, from the ICS station, gave a sedimentation rate of 0.02 cm y−1 . This accumulation rate, combined with a particulate carbon content of approximately 1%, yields an annual net accumulation of 1.7 g C m−2. The profiles of nutrients in the interstitial water (under the ice shelf) indicate a very small flux to the overlaying water. Outside the ice shelf the flux is significantly higher, though still small.