Abstract

Iron content of the bulk marine sediment from the Chilean continental margin has been used to infer millenial-scale climate changes in southeast Pacific [Lamy, F., Klump, J., Hebbeln, D., Wefer, G., 2000. Rapid climate change in northern Chile over the last 80 ka recorded in a marine sediment core. Terra Nova 12: 8-13]. Changes of iron contents have been related to a varying contribution of Andean (Fe-rich) versus Coastal Range (Fe-poor) source rocks ultimately controlled by continental rainfall changes. However, variations observed could also be produced by changes in the proportions of two components in the sediment - a detrital component with low and constant Fe content and an authigenic phase (Fe oxide, pyrite, apatite, etc.) with high Fe content. A sequential extraction has been used to partition the total iron content in the sediment of core GeoB 7101 at the continental margin of Chile. The extraction steps included five fractions: exchangeable, bound to carbonates, bound to Fe-Mn oxides, bound to organic matter, and residual. Iron appeared to be mainly present in the residual fraction, i.e. in the detrital component. Our study indicates that total Fe or Fe/Al may be used to infer millenial-scales climate changes in the southeastern Pacific. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.