(Table 1) Mineralogical composition of sediments from DSDP Sites 69-504 and 69-505

We discuss the provenance of minerals detected by X-ray-diffraction analyses of sediments of Sites 504 and 505 of Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 69. These are X-ray-amorphous material, opal-CT, calcite, quartz, feldspar, apatite, smectite, illite, kaolinite, magnetite, maghemite, pyrite, marcasite, barite, sepiolite, and clinoptilolite. Authigenic marcasite and clinoptilolite together with opal-CT are restricted to Site 504, indicating the special diagenetic conditions related to relatively high sediment temperatures at this site. Marcasite formation is likely dependent on the relatively low pH values of <7.1 found in interstitial waters of Site 504 sediments below 50 meters sub-bottom. Clinoptilolite evidently was formed by diagenetic alteration of rhyolitic volcanic glass or smectite plus biogenic silica within the chalk-limestone-chert sequence of Site 504, where opal-CT also reflects a high degree of silica dissolution and reprecipitation. This was a consequence of high temperatures (50-55 °C) at the base of the sediment column.

(Table 1) Sample levels of diatom and silicoflagellate datums at DSDP Holes 69-504 and 69-505

A standard biostratigraphic system, based upon diatom datum levels previously correlated to the paleomagnetic record, was applied to Deep Sea Drilling Project Sites 501/504 and 505. Sedimentation appears to have been constant at the three sites, averaging 50 m/m.y. at Sites 501/504 and 60 m/m.y. at Site 505. Calcium carbonate is rather poorly preserved at both sites, because of depth of water and, at Sites 501/504, alteration by diagenesis. Siliceous microfossils are common and moderately well preserved at the three sites; at Sites 501/504, diatoms disappear abruptly below the first occurrence of chert. The uppermost Miocene diatom assemblage occurs just above chert and is characterized by a strong dominance of Thalassionema and Thalassiothrix, which implies very high silica production during the latest Miocene; the chert probably is derived from a similar assemblage. In the earliest Pliocene, silica production appears to have decreased sharply; about 3 Ma, preservation of calcium carbonate also diminished, suggesting a shoaling of the CCD. At 2 Ma, there occurred a short interval of low production of both calcium carbonate and silica, which lasted into the earliest Pleistocene.