Late Quaternary Development of a deep-water Carbonate Mound in the northeast Atlantic

Numerous carbonate mounds have been discovered along the NW European Continental Margin. Many of them are covered by thickets of the ahermatypic corals. To unravel the processes active on the mound, in a case study on Propeller Mound its carbonate budget has been assessed and the mound development has been modelled. In addition benthic foraminiera assemblages have been analysed. Propeller Mound is a ~150m elevated mound in the Porcupine Seabight ca. 90 nautical miles west off South-Ireland. The carbonate budget shows that on Propeller Mound the sediments contain on average >50 wt.-% CaCO3 for the last 175kyrs. In contrast, the sediments from the reference sites off Propeller Mound contain <37 wt.-% CaCO3 for Holocene and