Preliminary results of the study of deep-sea sediments from the North Pole

Analysis of the chemical composition of mud (Table 1) by the X-ray fluorescence method revealed that highly water-saturated intervals are enriched in Na and Cl. These samples were omitted from consideration. Variations of petrogenic elements are insignificant in other samples. Data on the mineral and chemical compositions were used for estimating the quantitative proportions of minerals in the mud: quartz 30%, plagioclase 10%, mica 25%, kaolinite 15%, chlorite 5%, and smectite 15%. The micropaleontological analysis revealed that all the samples contain foraminifers, while only some of them enclose nannofossils. These finds indicate, in particular, that polynyas appeared or the thick ice cover was periodically absent here from the Late Glacial period up to the present-day time. The sharp increase in abundance of calcareous microorganisms at 14 cm and its growth upward through the section record the transition from the last glaciation to the Holocene. The maximal concentration of nannofossils Emiliania huxleyi,