Cenozoic magnetostratigraphy of ODP holes 113-689B and 113-690B

A detailed paleomagnetic study was carried out on biosiliceous and calcareous sediments drilled on Maud Rise, Antarctica, during ODP Leg 113. High-quality APC sections were retrieved in the upper 220 m of Holes 689B and 690B. Average deposition rates range from 3 to 15 m/m.y. A close (25 cm) paleomagnetic sample spacing provided a medium-resolution magnetostratigraphic sequence for the Paleogene and Neogene. Paleomagnetic samples were demagnetized stepwise by alternating fields, and characteristic remanent magnetization directions were derived from detailed vector and difference vector component analysis. A magnetochronologic framework has been established for the first time for the Southern Ocean sedimentary sequences spanning Paleocene to Oligocene and middle Miocene to early Pliocene times. Biosiliceous and calcareous microfossil stratigraphies were used to constrain magnetostratigraphic age assignments. Although average sedimentation rates were rather low, nearly complete sections of the geomagnetic polarity time scale (e.g., Chrons C5 and C5A) could be correlated with the inferred polarity pattern. Miocene and Pliocene records are marked by a high number of hiatuses mainly identified by diatom biostratigraphy. Good paleomagnetic correlation between the two holes is afforded in particular in the middle to upper Miocene. Oligocene magnetostratigraphy reveals a high-quality paleomagnetic record with a mostly complete Oligocene section in Hole 689B at ~5 m/m.y. deposition rate. Hole 690B exhibits higher deposition rates (7-12 m/m.y.), although two hiatuses are present. Early and late Eocene sedimentary sequences could be analyzed in both holes, but in Hole 689B middle Eocene chrons were disrupted by hiatuses and only incomplete polarity intervals C21 and C24 were encountered. Highest resolution (14 m/m.y.) was achieved in Hole 690B in a complete early Eocene and late Paleocene sequence from Chrons C23 to C26, with a number of short polarity intervals detected within Chrons C24 and C25.

Cenozoic planktonic foraminifera of the Falkland Plateau and Argentine Basin

Sites 511 and 512 (Falkland Plateau) and 513 (Argentine Basin) penetrated calcareous-siliceous oozes of the middle and upper Eocene and lower Oligocene with rather numerous planktonic foraminifers. Upper Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, and Quaternary sections are composed mostly of siliceous sediments (Sites 511-514) where planktonic foraminifers are rare or absent. High-latitude planktonic foraminifers of the Austral Province are characterized by impoverished assemblages - only representatives of Globigerina, Globigerinita, Globorotaloides, and Globorotalia with a rounded peripheral margin are found. In the Paleogene, these species are supplemented, in lesser amounts, by representatives of Globigerapsis, Acarinina, Pseudogloboquadrina, Pseudohastigerina, and Chiloguembelina. Assemblages of planktonic foraminifers have low stratigraphic resolution, especially in the upper Oligocene-Quaternary. This reflects the generally deteriorating Cenozoic climate, which evinced a sharp change in the upper Oligocene that is connected with initiation of the circum-Antarctic current near the Paleogene/Neogene boundary. Comparison of Paleogene and Neogene planktonic foraminifers of the South Atlantic (Falkland Plateau, Argentine Basin, 46-51°S) and the North Atlantic (Rockall Plateau, 55-56°N) indicates that the South Atlantic climate was much colder than that of the same latitudes of the North Atlantic. Paleogene oozes of the Falkland Plateau rest unconf ormably on Maestrichtian sediments and in their turn are overlain unconformably by Neogene-Quaternary oozes. Cenozoic sections are stratigraphically discontinuous: periods of intensive biogenic sedimentation resulting in a thick succession of sediments alternated with periods of nondeposition and strong erosion that resulted in hiatuses and unconformities. In the Argentine Basin, Oligocene calcareous-siliceous oozes rest on basalts of the oceanic basement; they are replaced upward in the section by Neogene-Quaternary siliceous oozes with some hiatuses. Planktonic foraminifers here clearly demonstrate the processes of oceanic subsidence and CCD fluctuations as well as Polar Front migrations during Cenozoic time. Fifty species of planktonic foraminifers are discussed and illustrated.

Pb isotopes in Cenozoic sediments of ODP Site 177-1090

Nd and Pb isotopic compositions extracted from bulk deep sea sediments have been shown to be robust proxies for deep water circulation as well as weathering provenance and intensity over geologically young time scales. In this study we evaluated ten deep sea samples from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) site 1090 ranging in age from mid Eocene to early-Miocene to test whether Pb isotopic compositions extracted from geologically older sediments record reliable seawater isotopic ratios and to evaluate the source of the extracted Pb. The sequential extraction protocol used in this study is similar to protocols reported for previous studies and produces acetic acid, hydroxylamine hydrochloride (HH) and residue fractions. Each extracted fraction was analyzed for Pb isotopes, rare earth elements (REEs), and a suite of major elements. Similar 206Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb, and 208Pb/204Pb ratios are recorded from the acetic acid and HH fractions for ~70-80% of the samples, suggesting that either the acetic acid dissolves Fe-Mn oxides or multiple phases are recording the same seawater isotopic value. Several indirect tests, such as Al mass balance, comparison of Sr isotopes in HH extracts to contemporaneous seawater Sr isotopes, and comparison of Nd isotopic compositions in HH extracts to published fossil fish teeth values, provide evidence that Pb isotopic compositions measured in our bulk HH extracts record bottom water values. The relationship between Pb, Mn and Ca concentrations in HH fractions indicates that Fe-Mn oxides and a Mn-bearing carbonate are the dominant phases contributing seawater Pb. Comparison of REE patterns derived from the HH fraction and total digestions of Fe-Mn nodule standards reveals that the trivalent REEs exhibit patterns consistent with the parent archive, but Ce can be fractionated during extraction. Ratios of REEs also produce unique fields for each fraction and can be used to test the purity of the seawater signal of the extraction protocol. Finally, an initial evaluation of Pb isotopic compositions in fossil fish indicates that this archive is not suitable for bottom water Pb isotope studies.

Upper Cenozoic dinoflagellate cysts from the continental slope and rise off New Jersey

This report contains the occurrence data for dinoflagellate cysts recorded from 163 samples taken from Sites 902 through 906, during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 150. The dinoflagellate cyst (dinocyst) stratigraphy has been presented in Mountain, Miller, Blum, et al. (1994, doi:10.2973/odp.proc.ir.150.1994), and was based on these data. This report provides the full dinocyst data set supporting the dinocyst stratigraphic interpretations made in Mountain, Miller, Blum, et al. (1994). For Miocene shipboard dinocyst stratigraphy, I delineated 10 informal zones: pre-A, and A through I, in ascending stratigraphic order. These zones are defined in Shipboard Scientific Party (1994a, doi:10.2973/odp.proc.ir.150.103.1994), and are based on my studies of Miocene dinocyst stratigraphy in the Maryland and Virginia coastal plain (de Verteuil and Norris, 1991, 1992; de Verteuil, 1995). This zonation has been slightly revised (de Verteuil and Norris, 1996), and the new formal zone definitions are repeated below. Each new zone has an alpha-numeric abbreviation starting with "DN" (for Dinoflagellate Neogene). The equivalence between the informal zones reported in Mountain, Miller, Blum, et al. (1994), and the new DN zones is illustrated in Figure 1. For clarity, I delineated both zonations in the range charts that accompany this report (Tables 1-6). De Verteuil and Norris (1996a), using these and other data, correlated the DN zonation with the geological time scale of Berggren et al. (1995). Figure 2 summarizes these correlations and can be used to check the chronostratigraphic position of samples in this report, as determined by dinocyst stratigraphy. A thorough discussion of the basis for, and levels of uncertainty associated with, these correlations to the Cenozoic time scale can be found in de Verteuil and Norris (1996a). The Appendix lists all the dinocyst taxa recorded during shipboard analyses of Leg 150 samples. Open nomenclature is used for undescribed taxa. The range charts and Appendix also include reference to several new taxa that de Verteuil and Norris (1996b) described from Miocene coastal plain strata in Maryland and Virginia. Names of these taxa in Tables 1 through 6 and in the Appendix of this report are not intended for effective publication as defined in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN, Greuter et al., 1994). Therefore, taxonomic nomenclature contained in this report is not to be treated as meeting the conditions of effective and valid publication (ICBN; Article 29).

Mineralogy of the clay fraction from Cenozoic Strata at DSDP Leg 94

Leg 94 Sites are located in a large geographic area of the northeastern Atlantic. Clay mineral analyses of the sediments recovered on Leg 94 (Eocene to the present), together with results obtained from previous DSDP legs (47B, 48, 80, 81, 82), provide greater insight into the paleoenvironmental evolution of the northeastern Atlantic. The characteristics of Eocene clay sediments are regional, reflecting, in the absence of strong bottom currents, the influence of neighboring petrographic environments: basic volcanic rocks (Sites 403-406, 552, and 608) and acid volcanic rocks (Sites 508 to 510). During the Oligocene, atmospheric circulation patterns left their mineralogical signatures in the southern part of the area investigated (Sites 558 and 608), whereas during the Miocene the intrusion of northern water masses led to the gradual homogenization of the clay sedimentation throughout the North Atlantic. In the late Pliocene, input from glacial sources became widespread.

Cenozoic radiolarians from the Bahamas

Radiolarians from two sites north of Little Bahama Bank (Sites 627 and 628) are correlated with assemblages from sites on the southeastern U.S. coastal plain and continental shelf and from DSDP Sites 391 and 534 in the Blake-Bahama Basin. Results show that deposition of biogenic silica-rich sediments occurred in this region from the late Oligocene through middle Miocene, although the record is interrupted by unconformities. Radiolarians help constrain the age of a mass-transported deposit at Site 627 that appears to be coeval with the Great Abaco Member of the Blake Ridge Formation.