(Table T2) Integrated intensity (peak area) of matrix minerals of ODP Hole 173-1068A

Mass-wasting deposits characterize the Upper Jurassic(?) to Lower Cretaceous sedimentary record of the Iberia Abyssal Plain. These deposits include olistostromes at Site 897, olistostromes and/or possible rock-fall deposits at Site 899, a breccia succession at Site 1068, slumped and fractured deposits at Site 1069, and a breccia succession at Site 1070. Whereas the exact origin of these deposits is uncertain, the regional common occurrence of middle to upper Mesozoic mass-wasting deposits suggests that they record the early rifting evolution of the west Iberia margin. This data report presents both qualitative and semiquantitative results from XRD analyses of the breccia matrix at Site 1068. In this study the matrix is defined as the fine-grained particles (as viewed through a binocular microscope) plus cement. Results are based on analytical methods that aimed to isolate the desired matrix from larger clast contamination prior to XRD analyses. In addition, the breccia was sampled at a higher resolution than was conducted aboard ship, producing a more complete description of downcore matrix mineralogical changes. The data presented here may be used to (1) further justify the subunit designation of Unit IV made aboard ship, (2) help determine to what degree the matrix and the larger clasts (studied in thin section aboard ship; Shipboard Scientific Party, 1998, doi:10.2973/odp.proc.ir.173.106.1998) are compositionally distinct, (3) help identify the extent of hydrothermal fluid migration in the breccia, and (4) support the proposed shipboard hypothesis that the Site 1068 breccia succession resulted from multiple mass-wasting.

(Table T1) Gas hydrate fabric and dipping angles of ODP Leg 204 sediments

The sediments of Hydrate Ridge/Cascadia margin contain extensive amounts of gas hydrate. A total of 57 sediment samples including gas hydrate were preserved in liquid nitrogen and have been imaged using computerized tomography to visualize hydrate distribution and shape. The analysis gives evidence that gas hydrate in vein and veinlet structures is the predominant shape in the deeper gas hydrate stability zone with dipping angles from 30° to 90°(vertical).

Lithology description, textural and structural observations, and indications for ground ice of sediment core CRP-2 (Table 1-4)

From the upper 300 m of CRP-2/2A, twenty-six samples of diamicts and deformation structures have been thin sectioned. These have been analysed for texture, structure, diagenesis and plasmic fabric. The combination of certain microstructures (e.g. turbate and linear) and plasmic fabric development is indicative of grounded ice. Clear evidence for two grounded ice events (three samples) was found in the upper Oligocene part of the core. The interpretation of ten more samples is less certain, but as for CRP-1, is taken to point to grounded ice as well. There is a strong correlation between these indications for grounded ice and the basal part of cycles in the sequence stratigraphy.

Particel size distribution and microstructures of sediments from ODP Leg 205 sites (Table 1)

Ocean Drilling Program Legs 170 and 205 offshore Costa Rica provide structural observations which support a new model for the geometry and deformation response to the seismic cycle of the frontal sedimentary prism and decollement. The model is based on drillcore, thin section, and electron microscope observations. The decollement damage zone is a few tens of meters in width, it develops mainly within the frontal prism. A clear cm-thick fault core is observed 1.6 km from the trench. The lower boundary of the fault core is coincident with the lithological boundary between the frontal prism and the hemipelagic and pelagic sediment of the Cocos plate. Breccia clast distributions in the upper portion of the decollement damage zone were studied through fractal analysis. This analysis shows that the fractal dimension changes with brecciated fragment size, implying that deformation was not accommodated by self-similar fracturing. A higher fractal dimensionality correlates with smaller particle size, which indicates that different or additional grain-size reduction processes operated during shearing. The co-existence of two distinct fracturing processes is also confirmed by microscopic analysis in which extension fracturing in the upper part of the damage zone farthest from the fault core is frequent, while both extension and shear fracturing occur approaching the fault core. The coexistence of extensional and shear fracturing seems to be best explained by fluid pressure variations in response to variations of the compressional regime during the seismic cycle. During the co-seismic event, sub-horizontal compression and fluid pressure increase, triggering shear fracturing and fluid expulsion. Fractures migrate upward with fluids, contributing to the asymmetric shape of the decollement, while slip propagates. In the inter-seismic interval the frontal prismrelaxes and fluid pressure drops. The frontal prismgoes into diffuse extension during the intervalwhen plate convergence is accommodated by creep along the ductile fault core. The fault core is typically a barrier to deformation, which is explained by its weak, but impermeable, nature. The localized development of a damage zone beneath the fault core is characterized by shear fracturing that appears as the result of local strengthening of the detachment.

(Table T1) Ages of white mica clasts in core samples of ODP Hole 210-1276A

Fifty-seven white mica clasts were separated from five samples taken from near the bases of turbidites ranging in age from early Albian to middle Eocene. Twenty two (39%) of the micas have ages between 260 and 340 Ma and five (9%) have older ages (~400-600 Ma). The former age range is characteristic of the North American Alleghenian orogeny and the Iberian Variscan orogeny. The latter range is characteristic of the North American Acadian orogeny and older basement rocks in the Grand Banks and Newfoundland areas. Both age ranges are present in the middle Eocene sample, but only the younger range occurs in the middle Albian sample. This difference could be a sampling artifact. If this is not the case, then the most likely explanation is that the Acadian-aged micas within the Meguma Zone underlying the Grand Banks were totally reset by Alleghenian reactivation of the zone, a feature which occurs extensively in Nova Scotia. The addition of Acadian-aged micas in the middle Eocene sample may reflect a change in sediment provenance as drainage systems unrelated to rift topography developed. With the exception of one clast dated at 186 Ma, the 12 other micas obtained from the upper Paleocene sample yielded ages between 55 and 74 Ma, with 7 falling within ±2 m.y. of the 57-Ma age of the sample indicated by the biostratigraphic age-depth plot for Site 1276. This, together with the volcaniclastic content of the sample, indicates an input from near-contemporaneous volcanism. The nearest known occurrences of near-contemporaneous late Paleocene volcanism that could have produced white micas are in Greenland and Portugal, some 2000 and 1500 km distant, respectively, from Site 1276 during the Paleocene. However, ages of volcanism in these areas indicate that they could probably not be sources of micas younger than 60 m.y., which suggests some as-yet unknown volcanic source in the North Atlantic area. Accumulation in the Grand Banks area of airborne-transported volcaniclastic material from eruptions of slightly different ages, followed by a single resedimentation event, could account for the spread of dates obtained from the sample. White micas from the lowermost Albian sample show a spread of ages between 37 and 284 Ma that is completely different from the age distribution pattern of the middle Albian and middle Eocene samples. The sample location is between, and at least 25 m above and below, two igneous sills dated at 98 and 105 Ma. The sills have narrow thermal aureoles and ages older than the youngest detrital micas in the sample. It is unlikely, therefore, that the spread of mica ages in the sample is due to partial resetting of ages caused by thermal effects associated with the intrusion of the sills. The resetting may have been associated with a longer lived thermal event.

Geochemistry and lithology of clayey nannofossil ooze turbidites and hemipelagites at ODP Holes 135-834A and 135-835A

The western Lau Basin, between the Central and Eastern Lau Spreading Centers and the Lau Ridge, contains several small, elongate, fault-bounded, partially sediment-filled sub-basins. Sites 834 and 835 were drilled in the oldest part of the Lau Basin in two of these small extensional basins close to the Lau Ridge, formed on late Miocene to early Pliocene oceanic crust. Both sites show a similar sediment sequence that consists of clayey nannofossil oozes and mixed sediments interbedded with epiclastic vitric sands and silts. The vitric sands and silts are largely restricted to the deeper part of the sediment column (early Pliocene-late Pliocene), and the upper part of the sediment column at both sites consists of a distinctive sequence of brown clayey nannofossil ooze, stained by iron and manganese oxyhydroxides (late Pliocene-Holocene). However, the clayey nannofossil ooze sequence at Site 835 is anomalously thick and contains several medium- to very thick beds of matrix-supported, mud-clast conglomerate (interpreted as muddy debris-flow deposits), together with large amounts of redeposited clayey nannofossil ooze and coherent rafted blocks of older hemipelagic material. Redeposited clayey nannofossil oozes can be distinguished from hemipelagic nannofossil oozes using several sedimentological criteria. These include variation in color hue and chroma, presence or absence of bioturbation, presence or absence of scattered foraminifers, grain-size characteristics, variability in calcium carbonate content, presence or absence of pumice clasts, and micropaleontology. Clayey nannofossil ooze turbidites and hemipelagites are also geochemically distinct, with the turbidites being commonly enriched in Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn, Cr, and P. The sediment sequence at Site 835 is dominated by allochthonous sediments, either muddy debris-flow deposits, coherent rafted blocks, or thick clayey nannofossil ooze turbidites. Since 2.9 Ma, only 25% of the 133 m of sediments deposited represents hemipelagic deposition, with an average sedimentation rate of 1.5 cm/k.y.. Allochthonous sediments were the main sediment type deposited during the Brunhes geomagnetic Epoch and make up 80% of the thickness of sediment deposited during this period. Short intervals of mainly hemipelagic deposition occurred from 0.4 to 0.9 Ma, 1.0 to 1.4 Ma, and 1.7 to 2.1 Ma. However, allochthonous sediments were again the dominant sediment type deposited between 2.1 and 2.5 Ma, with a large slide complex emplaced around 2.5 Ma. We conclude that the adjacent high ground, surrounding the basin in which Site 835 was drilled, was affected by marked instability throughout the late Pliocene and Pleistocene. In contrast, sedimentation at Site 834 during this period has been dominated by hemipelagic deposition, with redeposited sediments making up slightly less than 17% of the total thickness of sediment deposited since 2.3 Ma. However, there was a marked increase in frequency and magnitude of redeposited sediments at around 0.2 Ma at Site 834, which broadly corresponds to the onset of a major episode of turbidite and debris-flow emplacement beginning about 0.4 Ma at Site 835. This episode of instability at both sites may be the effect of the approach and passing of the Central Lau propagator at the latitude of Sites 834 and 835 at about 0.5 Ma.

Observation of ferromanganese deposits in the Baltic Sea

Baltic sediments have been studied by Behrens, Munthe, Küppers, Spethmann, Apstein, Sjöstedt, Pratje and the writer. The following types of sediments have been observed: varved and non-varved late-glacial clays, gray and black, post-glacial muds, and sands. The organic content of late-glacial clays ordinarily is less than 1.3 per cent, and of post-glacial muds more than 3 per cent. Sediments containing intermediate quantities are scarce. This can be explained as a result of the changed balance between organic and inorganic sedimentation when the glacial period ended; the abundance of fresh detritus then suddenly ceased and inorganic sedimentation became very much slower than before; consequently, the relative amount of organic detritus increased. As most of the material was not subjected to biological analysis, it has not been possible to distinguish different ages among post-glacial sediments.