Mineralogical and geochemical features of bottom sediments of Lake Onega in the continuous section of the last glacial – lacustrine-glacial – lake sedimentation cycle (Upper Pleistocene-Holocene)

As a result of drilling of bottom sediments from the ice of the Petrozavodsk Bay of Lake Onega in 2019, the entire section of supralacial sediments was uncovered for the first time, including the upper horizons of the bottom moraine, which, according to seismoacoustic data, overlaps the surface of the bedrock, and the entire thickness of lacustrine glacial and lacustrine sediments. The new data obtained will complement the information under what conditions and to what extent the sedimentary material entering Lake Onega changes during the last glacial–lacustrine-glacial–lake sedimentation cycle. A modern complex of mineralogical and geochemical methods (atomic absorption, mass spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma, X-ray diffraction and X-ray phase, using scanning electron microscopy) has been used to study sediment samples (section SP-0002, thickness 9.86 m). It was revealed that the vast majority of sedimentary material of lacustrine-glacial and lacustrine deposits is represented by particles of pelitic and siltstone-pelitic dimension and is formed mainly by the following minerals: quartz, feldspar, muscovite, illite, chlorite, hornblende. In the upper part of the section (ochreous and homogeneous silt), mineral phases Fe and Mn (goethite, vivianite, siderite, pyrolusite, rhodochrosite) and fragments of diatom shells (SiO2bio) are added to this group of minerals. Based on new data on the mineral and geochemical composition of the bottom sediments of Lake Onega, according to the calculated lithochemical indices CIA, ICV and modules GM, FM, common features and differences between individual isolated sediment bundles in the continuous section SP-0002 have been established. It has been established that the bottom sediments formed throughout the entire postglacial cycle have a similar mineral and geochemical composition. They are dominated by clastic material mixing products of erosion of Archean and Proterozoic granitoids, volcanogenic-sedimentary and sedimentary rocks of the Baltic crystalline shield, and material from sedimentary rocks of the Russian Plate. The pelitic and siltstone-pelitic dimension of the bulk of the mineral grains, the strong enrichment of bottom sediments with stable minerals and layered silicates, indicates the long-term nature of their transfer or the repeated redeposition of sedimentary material. The revealed weak degree of chemical weathering for sediments from the lower part of the section (lacustrine-glacial varve clays) indicates that intensive physical denudation prevailed in the conditions of nival sedimentogenesis on loose substrates of the catchment areas, as well as the significant role of aeolian transport of a large volume of sedimentary matter. The predominance of mostly moderately weathered material in the packs of homogeneous lake clays and silts, as well as in the “pink horizon” of varve clays, indicates a significant humidification of the climate during their formation.

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