IODP Expedition 323: Pliocene-Pleistocene paleoceanography and climate history of the Bering Sea

Background and objectives The primary objective of drilling at Site U1344 (Site GAT-3C) was to study highresolution Pliocene-Pleistocene paleoceanography at a proximal gateway location to the Arctic Ocean at the deepest water depth of Expedition 323. The site is located at ~3200 m along the small summit of a canyon interfluve ~10-15 km southeast of Pervenets Canyon, a large submarine canyon that deeply and widely incises the Beringian continental slope. Pervenets Canyon, along with companion Zhemchug Canyon adjacent to Site U1343, was discovered in the early 1960s by the Soviet fishing industry and named after one of the canyon’s discovering trawlers. At times of glacially lowered sea level, the head of Pervenets Canyon is commonly presumed to have been one of the outfall locations for the Anadyr River, which presently drains the Russian far northeast and enters the Bering Sea at the Gulf of Anadyr. It is anticipated to receive supply of terrigenous sediments from the shelf during both the interglacials and the glacials.