The results of study of composition of ice-rafted sediments (IRS) from drifting ice of the Fram Strait are presented. The coarse fraction includes aggregates of clayey minerals, quartz, feldspars, mica and chlorites, rarely epidote, amphibole and monazite. The presence of grains with variable degree of roundness allows us to assume heterogeneous siliciclastic sources. Mica and chlorites are dominant in the clayey fraction. Smectite and kaolinite amount is relatively low. This indicates that present-day bottom sediments of the shallow shelf of the eastern part of the Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea are potential IRS sources, which is also supported by the distribution of Co, Cr and REEs. The spore-pollen spectra also indicate heterogeneous IRS source. The presence of pollens of trees atypical of subpolar areas is evident of a distal wind or water transportation of the material. Our data suggest that the IRS from the drifting ice of the Fram Strait include sedimentary matter captured by the ice during roil of the bottom sediments of the eastern part of the Laptev Sea, the East Siberian or Chukchi (?) seas, as well as the products of long-range atmospheric and water transport.

Figures 12. Tables 3. Referenses 29.

Key words: ice-rafted sediments, Fram Strait, mineralogy, geochemistry, spores and pollens.

E.V. Belogub,  Institute of Mineralogy Urals Branch of RAS, Miass; belogub@mineralogy.ru 

A.V. Maslennikova, Institute of Mineralogy Urals Branch of RAS, Miass;

V.P. Shevchenko,  Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, RAS, Moscow;

A.V. Maslov, Zavaritsky Institute of Geology and Geochemistry, Urals Branch of RAS, Yekaterinburg;

S. Gerland,  Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, Troms

I.A. Blinov, Institute of Mineralogy Urals Branch of RAS, Miass

1. Condie K.C. (1993) Chemical composition and evolution of the upper continental crust: contrasting results from surface samples and shales. Chem. Geology, 104, 1–37.
2. Dethlef D., Nürnberg D., Reimnitz E., Saarso M., Savchenko Y.P. (1993) East Siberian Arctic Region Expedition’92: the Laptev Sea – its signifcance for Arctic sea-ice formation and transpolar sediment fux. Berichte zur Polarforschung, 120, 3–44.
3. Eicken H., Reimnitz E., Alexandrov V., Martin T., Kassens H., Viehof T. (1997) Sea-ice processes in the Laptev Sea and their importance for sediment export. Continental Shelf Research, 17, 205–233.
4. Faegri K., Iversen J. (1989) Textbook of Pollen Analysis. Chichester, John Wiley and Sons, 328 p.
5. Hubert f., caner L., Meuner A., Ferrage E. (2012) Unraveling complex <2 µm clay mineralogy from soils using X-ray difraction profle modeling on particle-size sub-fractions: Implications for soil pedogenesis and reactivity. American Mineralogist, 97, 384–398.
6. Kolatschek J., Eicken H., Alexandrov V.Yu., Kreyscher M. (1996) The sea-ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and the Eurasian marginal seas: a brief overview of present day patterns and variability. Berichte zur Polarforschung, 212, 2–19.
7. Krause G., Schauer U. (2001) The expeditions ARKTIS XVI/1 and ARKTIS XVI/2 of the research vessel «Polarstern» in 2000. Berichte zur Polar- und Meeresforschung, 389, 108 p.
8. Lisitzin A.P. (2002) Sea-ice and iceberg sedimentation in the Ocean: recent and past. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, Springer-Verlag, 563 p.
9. Lisitzin A.p., Shevchenko V.P. (2016) Glacial-marine sedimentation. Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences. Harf J., Meschede M., Petersen S., Thiede J. (Eds). Dordrecht, Springer Science+Business Media, 288–294.
10. Nürnberg D., Wollenburg I., Dethlef D., Eicken H., Kassens H., Letzig t., Reimnitz E., Thiede J. (1994) Sediments in Arctic sea ice: Implications for entrainment, transport and release. Marine Geology, 119 , 185–214.
11. Pilrman S.L., Eicken H., Bauch D., Weeks W.F. (1995) The potential transport of pollutants by Arctic sea ice. The Science of the Total Environment, 159, 129–146.
12. Pilrman S., Lange M.A., Wollenburg I., Schlosser P. (1990) Sea ice characteristics and the role of sediment inclusions in deep-sea deposition: Arctic-Antarctic comparisons. Geological History of the Polar Oceans: Arctic versus Antarctic. Bleil U., Thiede J. (Eds). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 187–211.
13. Reimnitz E., Dethlef D., Nürnberg D. (1994) Contrasts in Arctic shelf sea-ice regimes and some implications: Beaufort Sea versus Laptev Sea. Marine Geology, 11 9, 215–225.
14. Rousseau D.-D., Duzer D., EtienneJ.-L., cam-bon G., Jolly D., Ferrier J., Schevin P. (2004) Pollen record of rapidly changing air trajectories to the North Pole. Journal of Geophysical Research, 109, 1–7, DOI:10.1029/2003JD003985.
15. Shevchenko V.p., Lisitzin A.p., Kuptzov V.M., Ivanov G.I., Lukashin V.N., Martin J.M., Rusakov V.Yu., Safarova S.A., Serova V.V., Van Grieken R., Van Malderen H. (1995) Composition of aerosols over the Laptev, Kara, Barents, Greenland and Norwegian seas. Berichte zur Polarforschung, 176, 7–16.
16. Wahsner M., Müller C., Stein R., Ivanov G., Levitan M., Shelekhova E., Tarasov G. (1999). Clay-mineral distribution in surface sediments of the Eurasian Arctic Ocean and continental margin as indicator for source areas and transport pathways – a synthesis. Boreas, 28, 215–233.
17. Levitan M.A., Nyurnberg D., Shtayn R., Kassens K.H., Masner M., Shelekhova Ye.S. (1995) [The role of kryosols in accumulation of modern sediments of the Arctic Ocean]. Doklady Akademii nauk [Doklady Academy of Sciences USSR], 344(4), 506–509. (in Russian)
18. Lisitzin A.P. (1994a) [Ice sedimentation in the World ocean]. M., Nauka, 448 p. (in Russian)
19. Lisitzin A.P. (1994б) [Marginal flter of the oceans]. Okeanologiya [Okeanology], 34(5), 735–743. (in Russian)
20. Lisitzin A.P. (2010) Marine ise-rafting as a new type of sedimentogenesis in the Arctic and novel approaches to studying sedimentary processes. Russian Geology and Geophysics, (1), 12–47.
21. Lopatin G.V. (1952) [River sediments of the USSR]. M., Gidrometeoizdat, 366 p. (in Russian)
22. Maslov A.V., Shevchenko V.P., Bobrov V.A., Belogub E.V., Ershova V.B., Vereshchagin O.S., Khvorov P.V. (2018) [Mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of ice sedimentary material from Arctic]. Litologiya i poleznye iskopaemye [Lithology and Mineral Resources] (In press). (in Russian)
23. Naydina O.D. (2014) The pollen complex from postglacial sediments of the Laptev Sea as a bioindicator. Stratigraphy and Geological correlation, 22(3), 336–345.
24. Nekrasova T.P. (1983) [Pollen and pollen regime of Siberian coniferae]. Novosibirsk, Nauka, Siberian Branch, 169 p. (in Russian)
25. Shevchenko V.P., Lisitzin A.P, Stein R., Goryunova N.V., Klyuvitkin A.A., Kravchishina M.D., Kriews M., Novigatskiy A.N., Sokolov V.T., Filippov A.S., Haas C. (2007) [Distribution and composition of insoluble particles in the Arctic snow]. Problemy Arktiki i Antarktiki [Problems of the Arctic and Antarctic], 75, 106–118. (in Russian)
26. Shevchenko V.P., Maslov A.V., Lisitzin A.P., Novigatskiy A.N., Shtayn R. (2017a) [Systematics of Cr, Co and rare earth elements in sedimentary material of drifting ice north of the Beaufort Gyre]. Litosfera [Lithosphere], 17(3), 59–70. (in Russian)
27. Shevchenko V.P., Maslov V.A., Stein R. (2017b) [Distribution of rare and trace elements in sedimentary material carried by drifting ice in the Ermak Plateau region, Arctic Ocean]. Okeanologiya [Oceanology], 57(6). (in press). (in Russian)
28. Teylor S.R., MacLennan S.M. (1988) [Continental crust: its composition and evolution] M., Mir [World], 384 p. (in Russian)
29. Zakharov V.F. (1996) [Sea ice in the climate system]. St. Petersburg, Gidrometeoizdat, 213 p. (in Russian).