Late Eocene larger foraminifera and other fossils of ODP Leg 115 holes

Shallow-water larger foraminifers have been recovered at two drill sites on the eastern Maldive Ridge. Despite the poor recovery in Hole 715A, a rather diversified larger benthic foraminifer assemblage allowed us to date the initiation of a carbonate platform, resting on volcanic basement, as late early Eocene. Several age-diagnostic species belonging to the genera Alveolina, Nummulites, Orbitolites, and Discocyclina have been identified. The assemblages may be attributable to the upper part of the Nummulites burdigalensis cantabricus Zone and/or to the lower part of the Nummulites campesinus Zone and to the Alveolina dainellii (upper part) and/or to the A. violae (lower part) zones. The carbonate platform had a very short life (a few hundred thousand years) and rapidly sank below the euphotic zone, as testified by the occurrence of several species of planktonic foraminifers associated with redeposited reef-derived skeletal debris, especially discocyclinids, in the upper part of the sequence. Among the planktonic foraminifers, the presence of Planorotalites palmeri, which has a range confined to the lower portion of the late early Eocene Zone P9, implies that the platform was drowned before the end of the early Eocene. At Hole 714A, the occurrence of several shallow-water foraminifer genera, such as Nummulites (N. fabianii gr.), Discocyclina, Fabiania, Heterostegina, and Operculina (O. gomezi), in pebbles derived from turbidite beds interbedded within late Oligocene pelagic sediments, allows us to suggest that a carbonate platform, possibly reduced in size, was still growing in the Maldive Ridge area after the late early Eocene time. The erosional event, responsible for the redeposition of middle to late Eocene reef-derived skeletal debris, is apparently coeval with the global sea-level fall recorded in late Oligocene Zone P22.

(Table 2) Actual and synthetic mass accumulation rate data and their absolute differences for ODP Site 115-707

Synthetic mass accumulation rates have been calculated for ODP Site 707 using depth-density and depth-porosity functions to estimate values for these parameters with increasing sediment thickness, at 1 Ma time intervals determined on the basis of published microfossil datums. These datums were the basis of the age model used by Peterson and Backman (1990, doi:10.2973/odp.proc.sr.115.163.1990) to calculate actual mass accumulation rate data using density and porosity measurements. A comparison is made between the synthetic and actual mass accumulation rate values for the time interval 37 Ma to the Recent for 1 Myr time intervals. There is a correlation coefficient of 0.993 between the two data sets, with an absolute difference generally less than 0.1 g/cm**2/kyr. We have used the method to extend the mass accumulation rate analysis back to the Late Paleocene (60 Ma) for Site 707. Providing age datums (e.g. fossil or magnetic anomaly data) are available the generation of synthetic mass accumulation rates can be calculated for any sediment sequence.

Alda Rossebastiano, La tradizione ibero-romanza del "Libro de las maravillas del mundo" di Juan de Mandavila, Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso, 1997, 115 pp.

Fil: Rodríguez Temperley, María Mercedes. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

Alda Rossebastiano, La tradizione ibero-romanza del "Libro de las maravillas del mundo" di Juan de Mandavila, Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso, 1997, 115 pp.

Fil: Rodríguez Temperley, María Mercedes. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

Nd, Sm and carbon isotopic data for samples from ODP Legs 115, 145, 171, and 207

Late Cretaceous fish debris from Demerara Rise exhibits a dramatic positive excursion of 8 e-Nd units during ocean anoxic event 2 (OAE2) that is superimposed on extremely low e-Nd(t) values (-14 to -16.5) observed throughout the rest of the studied interval. The OAE2 e-Nd excursion is the largest yet documented in marine sediments, and the majority of the shift is estimated to have occurred over <20 k.y. Low background e-Nd values on Demerara Rise are explained as the Nd isotopic signature of the South American craton, whereas eruptions of the Caribbean large igneous province or enhanced mixing of intermediate waters in the North Atlantic could have caused the excursion.