We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Characterization of suspended particles at different glacial bays at Spitsbergen.
- Authors
Dragańska-Deja, Katarzyna
- Abstract
• The mineralogical composition of the suspended sediment exhibits a high degree of spatial variability. • SPM concentrations are very high near the source of the meltwater plume and contain a high content of mineral particles, particularly inorganic matter, with concentrations ranging from 82.5% to 97.9% of TSM. • The particle size distribution (PSD) reflects the mineral composition of the suspended sediment. Particle size distribution (PSD) and concentration of mineral-suspended sediment released from melting glaciers are important factors affecting the local marine ecosystem, e.g. affecting the light availability in water columns, thus changing underwater light climate for photosynthetic organisms. We examined the characteristics of various samples of natural mineral assemblages suspended in different glacial bays in Hornsund and Kongsfjord at Spitsbergen. The concentrations of the total mass of particles (TSM) in suspended sediment as well as particular organic matter (POM) and particular inorganic matter mass (PIM) together with mineralogical composition and particular size distribution (PSD) were determined. In this study, we investigated the PSD properties and variability in the front of different tidewater glaciers based, laser diffractometer measurements (LISST-100x), and XRD – techniques to obtain the mineralogical composition of the particles. The sampled sites are under the strong influence of freshwater discharge from the glacier. At each station, inorganic particulate matter contributed up to 98% to total suspended matter with the particle concentration of the particle reaches up to 111 mg/l with mean surface PSD slopes ranging from 3.24 to 3.85. The result provides valuable baseline information on the observed range of variability of the size of suspended particles due to glacial runoff and the presence of particles of different mineral origin in the glacial bays.
- Subjects
SPITSBERGEN Island (Norway); SVALBARD (Norway); SUSPENDED sediments; PARTICLE size distribution; COMPOSITION of sediments; WATER supply; GLACIAL melting; ALPINE glaciers; MASS transfer
- Publication
Oceanologia, 2024, Vol 66, Issue 2, p239
- ISSN
0078-3234
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1016/j.oceano.2023.12.001