Neogene and Quaternary paleoenvironmental history at DSDP Leg 71 Holes

The Neogene and Quaternary sedimentary record of Leg 71 and previously drilled sequences from the Southern Ocean reveal evidence of a major late Miocene change of oceanic and glacial conditions in the southern high latitudes during paleomagnetic Chron 9. The characteristics of late Miocene sedimentation and in particular the study of erosional patterns and ice-rafted debris suggest the following conclusions. 1) In the late Miocene, the Polar Front first migrated to the northern latitudes of the Southern Ocean and surface water temperatures became similar to those of today. 2) Extensive ice shelves or ice tongues were not present along the Antarctic margin until late Chron 9 (about 9.0 Ma). 3) Before Chron 9, West Antarctica was occupied by an archipelago and the West Antarctic Sea. 4) Extensive ice shelves formed in the West Antarctic region, eventually coalescing and thickening to form the grounded West Antarctic ice sheet by Chron 9. 5) The newly formed West Antarctic ice sheet was probably unstable and frequently became an ungrounded ice shelf, thus accounting for the scarcity of late Miocene ice-rafted debris. 6) Extensive erosion or nondeposition of sediment was probably the result of increased Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) formation in the West Antarctic region during the initial formation of extensive West Antarctic ice shelves and during periods when the West Antarctic ice sheet was ungrounded. 7) In the Southwest Atlantic, AABW velocity waned during the latest Miocene. During the late Gilbert Chron a major and permanent change occurred in the pattern of ice-rafting to the South Atlantic, and after 4.35 Ma the increased IRD accumulation rate and frequency of major episodes of IRD accumulation suggest increased stability of the West Antarctic ice sheet. In addition, radiolarian faunas of Hole 514 record at least eight migrations of the Polar Front to the north of the site during the past 4.07 m.y. An apparent increase in the frequency of Polar Front migrations occurred about 2.7-2.6 Ma, possibly in response to oceanic change induced by fluctuations in glacial conditions of the Northern Hemisphere.

Organic geochemistry of upper Jurassic-Cretaceous sediments at DSDP Hole 71-511

Cretaceous and Jurassic sediments 435 m thick were drilled at Site 511, in the basin province of the Falkland Plateau, during DSDP Leg 71. The calcareous Unit 3 and the clayey zeolitic Unit 4, both of Senonian age, revealed poorly preserved organic matter indicative of oxidized environments. The same characteristics prevailed for the clayey Unit 5 of Turonian to Albian age. Strictly reducing environments existed for black facies along Unit 6 of earliest Albian to Late Jurassic age and allowed the preservation of a rich organic material that is marine in origin. Besides the transition from reducing conditions in Unit 6 to oxidizing conditions in Unit 5, there are 20 meters of sediments in Cores 56-58 where detrital, nonmarine and then marine organic matter, both implying more or less reducing environments, are interlain by poorly preserved material. In the black shales of the bottom Cores 69 and 70, some nonmarine detritus is mixed with the predominantly marine organic material. An immature stage of evolution can be assigned to all of the samples studied. The chapter also undertakes a comparison with contemporaneous lithologies at adjacent Sites 327 and 330 and attempts some reconstruction of the geography of the eastern Falkland Plateau during the Mesozoic.