(Table 2) Methane to ethane ratio, and d13C-methane at DSDP Hole 76-533

Natural gas hydrates are clathrates in which water molecules form a crystalline framework that includes and is stabilized by natural gas (mainly methane) at appropriate conditions of high pressures and low temperatures. The conditions for the formation of gas hydrates are met within continental margin sediments below water depths greater than about 500 m where the supply of methane is sufficient to stabilize the gas hydrate. Observations on DSDP Leg 11 suggested the presence of gas hydrates in sediments of the Blake Outer Ridge. Leg 76 coring and sampling confirms that, indeed, gas hydrates are present there. Geochemical evidence for gas hydrates in sediment of the Blake Outer Ridge includes (1) high concentrations of methane, (2) a sediment sample with thin, matlike layers of white crystals that released a volume of gas twenty times greater than its volume of pore fluid, (3) a molecular distribution of hydrocarbon gases that excluded hydrocarbons larger than isobutane, (4) results from pressure core barrel experiments, and (5) pore-fluid chemistry. The molecular composition of the hydrocarbons in these gas hydrates and the isotopic composition of the methane indicate that the gas is derived mainly from microbiological processes operating on the organic matter within the sediment. Although gas hydrates apparently are widespread on the Blake Outer Ridge, they probably are not of great economic significance as a potential, unconventional, energy resource or as an impermeable cap for trapping upwardly migrating gas at Site 533.

(Table 1) 10 Beryllium and CaCO3 at DSDP Holes 86-576B, 86-576, and 86-578

Extension of the 10Be geochronology for deep-sea sediments beyond the limit of late Pliocene age found in published works has been attempted. The results obtained on sediments from Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Sites 576 and 578 of Leg 86 suggest the feasibility of dating sediments as old as 12 to 15 m.y. At both sites, there have been large changes in sedimentation rate, with the Pleistocene sediments accumulating several times faster than those of the Pliocene, which in turn were deposited several times more rapidly than the late Miocene sediments. The Pleistocene-Pliocene section is considerably thicker in Hole 578 than in Hole 576B: the respective depths for the 7 m.y. time boundary in the two holes are about 125 and about 25 m. These 10Be-based age estimates are in agreement with the paleomagnetic stratigraphies established for the two sites. The suggested enhancement in the oceanic deposition of 10Be before 7 to 9 m.y. ago, as noticed in manganese crusts, has found tentative support from the present sedimentary records. A preliminary search for 10Be production variation during a geomagnetic field reversal has been conducted. In Hole 578, an enhanced 10Be concentration is found in a sample close to the Brunhes/Matuyama reversal boundary. More detailed and systematic measurements are required to confirm this observation, which bears on the detailed behavior of the geomagnetic field during the reversal.

Geochemistry of organic carbon at DSDP Sites 75-530 and 75-532

CHN analyses of sediments and rocks sampled during DSDP Leg 75 in the South Atlantic have provided concentrations of organic carbon and atomic C/N ratios of organic matter from two sites. High values of organic carbon were measured in sediments deposited during Neogene and Cretaceous times at Site 530 in the Angola Basin; sediments deposited at other times contain less than 0.5% organic carbon. Development of the Benguela Current and associated upwelling-supported biological productivity is recorded in late Miocene to Holocene sediments which contain 1 to 7% organic carbon. These sediments include debris flows and turbidites composed of predominantly biogenic materials originally deposited on the Walvis Ridge and on the African continental margin. Organic-carbon-rich black shales containing up to 17% organic carbon occur in late Albian to Coniacian turbidite sequences. These Cretaceous black shale layers are commonly several centimeters thick and are separated by bioturbated fine-grained organic-carbon-poor turbidites which are usually much thicker. At Site 532 on the Walvis Ridge, biogenic sediments deposited between late Miocene and Holocene times contain 1 to 9% organic carbon. Fluctuations in the intensity of high biological productivity associated with the Benguela Current are preserved in alternating light and dark layers of sediments. C/N ratios of organic matter in sediments from both sites are typical of marine sources