Linking Late Pleistocene alpine glacial erosion and continental margin sedimentation: Insights from 40Ar/39Ar dating of silt-sized sediment, Canterbury Basin, New Zealand

•40Ar/39Ar ages in fine marine sediments used to investigate sediment provenance.•Sediment produced by glacial erosion within active fault zone in Southern Alps.•Marine strata record changes in locus of alpine glacial erosion over climate cycles.•Changing modes of marine sediment dispersal recognized from silt 40Ar/39Ar ages.•Continental shelf buffers sediment provenance signal in the seaward direction.

Quaternary climatic and eustatic cycles in mid-latitude regions have led to more extensive alpine glaciations and continental shelf progradation, respectively. However, the glacial influence on sediment fluxes to the ocean creating continental margin strata is poorly documented. This contribution analyzes the provenance of fine sediment accumulating on the continental shelf during the Late Pleistocene to evaluate the influence of glacial cycles on sediment erosion and routing to the continental shelf. Taking advantage of the contrasting bedrock ages exposed across the Southern Alps, New Zealand, we perform 40Ar/39Ar incremental heating on the bulk silt-size sediment from three drill sites of IODP Expedition 317, Canterbury Basin, New Zealand. The results suggest that a large proportion of sediment accumulating on the continental shelf results from erosion within the Main Divide fault zone of the Southern Alps. Sediment 40Ar/39Ar age fluctuations over this time period suggest that bedrock with various 40Ar/39Ar cooling ages has been differentially eroded in the upper Waitaki River catchment and mixed in the Waitaki-Canterbury sediment-routing system. Across-shelf variations in sediment 40Ar/39Ar age reflect changing modes of sediment dispersal on the continental shelf. Fluvial material, likely derived from the main drainage divide zone, preferentially accumulates in the middle continental shelf, whereas material representing erosion of older bedrock (Torlesse Terrane), located lower in the drainage basin, is dispersed uniformly across the shelf. The age signature of the muddy sediment accumulating on the continental shelf reflects Late Pleistocene landscape evolution of the Southern Alps and its influence on sediment dispersal to the continental shelf.