The colorimetric method of analysis was first used to study the distribution of the color characteristics (spaces RGB and HSL) in sediment cores from the Kuril Basin of the Sea of Okhotsk and the nearby Kuril-Kamchatka Trench area of the Northwest Pacific. The statistic processing of these and in addition obtained geochemical and grain-size data made it possible to establish the controlling factors and significant relations. The most stable direct correlation is demonstrated by the characteristics of R–Mn–Mo (fine-grained oxidized sediments enriched in hydroxides of iron and manganese and related with them microelements) and H–L–SiO2 (coarse-fragmental part of sediments involving the grains of rock-forming minerals and sometimes a significant admixture of the diatom frustules). Usually, saturation S and phosphorus content gravitate to the first group of parameters, and the additive primary blue color B tends to the second group. Informative are some relations of the color characteristics, for example, the additive primary red color R and green color G (the boundary of the oxidized and reduced sediments). The admixture of the volcanogenic (pyroclastic) material can be reflected in the shift and disruption of the described relations. The results obtained show the regional conditions of sedimentation with the participation of the terrigenous, biogenic, and volcanogenic material and subsequent diagenetic redistribution of the matter. The revealed regularities together with other characteristics of the matter composition can be used for the detailed description of the sediment cores of the regions with the similar settings of sedimentation.
2019. V. 178. Art.no. 102197