Magnetostratigraphy of ODP Leg 207 sediments

Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Sites 1257-1261 recovered thick sections of Upper Cretaceous-Eocene oceanic sediments on Demerara Rise off the east coast of Surinam and French Guiana, South America. Paleomagnetic and rock magnetic measurements of ~800 minicores established a high-resolution composite magnetostratigraphy spanning most of the Maastrichtian-Eocene. Magnetic behavior during demagnetization varied among lithologies, but thermal demagnetization steps >200°C were generally successful in removing present-day normal polarity overprints and a downward overprint induced during the ODP coring process. Characteristic remanent magnetizations and associated polarity interpretations were generally assigned to directions observed at 200°-400°C, and the associated polarity interpretations were partially based on whether the characteristic direction was aligned or apparently opposite to the low-temperature "north-directed" overprint. Biostratigraphy and polarity patterns constrained assignment of polarity chrons. The composite sections have a complete polarity record of Chrons C18n (middle Eocene)-C34n (Late Cretaceous).

Tie points and log-adjusted depth scales for ODP Leg 207 Sites

Multiple copies of Cretaceous black shales extending from the early Cenomanian to the end of the Santonian were recovered at five sites on Demerara Rise during Leg 207 of the Ocean Drilling Program. These sediments are primarily composed of laminated organic-rich claystones interbedded with coarser, lightly laminated foraminferal-bearing packstones and wackestones. The black shales represent the local expression of widespread organic-rich sedimentation in the Atlantic during the mid-Cretaceous. However, incomplete recovery prevented construction of continuous composite sections, resulting in uncertainties concerning the correct stratigraphic placement of individual cores. By combining high-resolution measurements of bulk density collected shipboard on the multisensor track with continuous downhole measurements of formation resistivity using the Formation MicroScanner, an equivalent logging depth scale was constructed for black shales recovered from Sites 1258, 1260, and 1261. The integrated depths approach centimeter-scale resolution and are supported by comparisons of coarser resolution natural gamma ray emissions collected on cores and through downhole logging operations. The new depths highlight the extent of both intra- and intercore gaps and provide an opportunity to further constrain temporal and spatial paleoceanographic changes captured in proxy records from these sediments.

(Table T1) Total procaryotes, and living bacteria and archaea in black shales of ODP Leg 207 sites

Subseafloor sediments harbor over half of all prokaryotic cells on Earth (Whitman et al., 1998). This immense number is calculated from numerous microscopic acridine orange direct counts (AODCs) conducted on sediment cores drilled during the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) (Parkes et al., 1994, doi:10.1038/371410a0, 2000, doi:10.1007/PL00010971). Because these counts cannot differentiate between living and inactive or even dead cells (Kepner and Pratt, 1994; Morita, 1997), the population size of living microorganisms has recently been enumerated for ODP Leg 201 sediment samples from the equatorial Pacific and the Peru margin using ribosomal ribonucleic acid targeting catalyzed reporter deposition-fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH) (Schippers et al., 2005, doi:10.1038/nature03302). A large fraction of the subseafloor prokaryotes were alive, even in very old (16 Ma) and deep (>400 m) sediments. In this study, black shale samples from the Demerara Rise (Erbacher, Mosher, Malone, et al., 2004, doi:10.2973/odp.proc.ir.207.2004) were analyzed using AODC and CARD-FISH to find out if black shales also harbor microorganisms.