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Deep Sea Drilling Project Initial Reports Volume 39

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Deep Sea Drilling Project Initial Reports Volume 39 46. GENERAL SYNTHESIS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH ATLANTIC DRILLING RESULTS, LEG 39, DEEP SEA DRILLING PROJECT Peter R. Supko,1 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California and Katharina Perch-Nielsen, Eidg. Techniche Hochschule, Zurich, Switzerland INTRODUCTION shows the location of pertinent sites drilled on Legs 3, 36, 40, and 41. Leg 39 drill sites were selected to address several partially interrelated geologic problems. The Vema HIATUSES Fracture Zone (Site 353) was drilled in an attempt to That the sediment record of ocean basins is not recover igneous rocks of crustal Layer 3 in an area continuous at all locations was recognized from the where these deeper rocks might be exposed at drillable earliest DSDP results, and it soon became apparent depths as a result of fracture zone tectonics (Bonatti, that regional temporal and spatial trends existed (e.g., 1971). The crest portion of the Ceará Rise (Site 354) Moore, 1972). The regional importance of Atlantic was drilled to detail its sedimentation history, to obtain hiatuses was noted by Pimm and Hayes (1972), whose as complete a low-latitude biostratigraphic section as compilation of Leg 14 and earlier data indicated that possible, and to determine the nature of basement much of the Tertiary section was missing at many sites. under this physiographic and structural high in the They further noted that the hiatuses represented longer Guiana Basin. Sites 355 and 358 were drilled to date time spans in the western portion of the basin, implying oceanic magnetic anomalies and to detail the current control by eroding westward-intensified sedimentation histories of deepwater locations in the thermohaline currents. Kennett et al. (1972, 1974) Brazil and Argentine basins. The Sào Paulo Plateau site interpret regional mid-Tertiary hiatuses in the (356) was selected to sample sediments of ages equal to southwest Pacific and Southern oceans as resulting and older than the presumed Aptian salts which form from initiation of the circumpolar current. Davies et al. an important diapiric structural province on the (1975) summarize the data on Indian Ocean hiatuses. plateau and on the opposing Angolan borderland; to Rona (1973) notes that several major hiatuses have determine the nature of several subbottom reflectors of global significance and suggests they result from regional extent; and to attempt to sample basement. tectono-eustatic changes in sea level. In a very Site 357 was chosen in the vicinity of the largely important paper, Moore et al. (in press) synthesize the unsuccessful Leg 3 Site 22, in order to obtain a very data on all hiatuses reported by DSDP through Leg 31, complete sedimentary succession on the little and discuss their spatial and temporal distributions in understood Rio Grande Rise, and to attempt to sample terms of possible causes. Fischer and Arthur (in press) basement. Site 359, on the crest of a high in the plot hiatuses as a function of geologic time for five seamount province of the Walvis Ridge, was an major ocean basins. Figure 2 is a modification of their unplanned site of opportunity, chosen to use drilling figure illustrating the ubiquity of hiatuses at certain time remaining after being blown off Site 358. times; data are shown as percentage of cored intervals Detailed observations are presented in the Site of any given age, in which gaps representing more than Report chapters of this volume; discussions appear in 1.5 m.y. have been recognized, plotted at 2.5-m.y. these same chapters and in other chapters written by intervals. Data for Legs 1-30 are from Initial Reports, both shipboard scientists and shore laboratory and data for Legs 31-41 are from summaries published collaborators. This chapter is not an attempt to assess in Geotimes. On a world ocean basis, hiatuses were the state of overall knowledge of the geological history more common in the Turonian, late Maestrichtian- of the South Atlantic as reflected by drilling results; Paleocene, late Paleocene-early Eocene, at the such an attempt will be more appropriate when the Eocene/Oligocene boundary, and into the Oligocene. critical results of Legs 40 and 41 are published. The Better shown in the plot of Moore et al. (in press) is a following discussions center on those aspects of marine mid- to late Miocene hiatus, occurring in all basins but geology affected by Leg 39 results, such as the nature most pronounced in the South Atlantic. and occurrence of hiatuses, sedimentary successions at Hiatuses encountered on Leg 39 are shown in Figure oceanic and marginal sites, nature of oceanic rises, 3, which also contains information from several Leg 3 nature of seismic reflectors, and the dating of oceanic sites (Maxwell, Von Herzen, et al., 1970), Leg 40 sites magnetic anomalies. The Glomar Challenger track and (Bolli, Ryan, et al., 1975), and Leg 36 sites on the Leg 39 drill sites are shown in Figure 1, which also Falkland Plateau and Malvinas Outer Basin (Barker, Dalziel, et al., 1974). Solid bars indicate hiatuses proved by missing biostratigraphic zones in 1 Present address: National Research Institute for Oceanology, P.O. continuously cored sequence; the wiggly lines indicate Box 320, Stellenbosch, South Africa. hiatuses inferred in undatable sediment sequences or 1099 P. R. SUPKO, K. PERCH-NIELSEN 30°N AFRICA 15C 353f Guiana Basin UEJ 7X 60°W 45° 30° 15° 0° 15C 30° E Figure 1. Base map of locations of selected DSDP sites drilled in the South Atlantic on Legs 3, 36, 39, 40, and 41. 1100 SYNTHESIS SOUTH PACIFIC AND TOTAL SOUTHEASTERNMOST OCEAN NORTH ATLANTIC SOUTH ATLANTIC NORTH PACIFIC INDIAN INDIAN SUMMARY MY AGE LEGS 5, 6,7,8,9, LEGS 1,2, II, 12,13,14,41 LEGS 3, 4, 36, 39,40 16, 17, 19,32 ,33,34 LEGS 21, 28, 29,30,35 LEGS 22,24,25,26,27 0- >LEISTOCENE- —PLIOCENES MIOCENE 20- 0LI60CENE 4CH EOCENE 60- PALEOCENE MAESTRICHTIAN CAMPANIAN 80- SANTONIAN CONIACIAN TURONIAN CENOMANIAN 100- 80 % OF CORED INTERVALS CONTAINING STRATIGRAPHIC GAPS Figure 2. Worldwide stratigraphic hiatuses based on DSDP cores. Values plotted (at2.5-m.y. intervals) are percentages of cored intervals in which gaps of 1.5 m.y. or more have been recognized (modified from Fisher and Arthur, in press, with kind permission). cored or uncored intervals where the rates of deposition formed a barrier to circulation between the northern would be much lower than the average rates typical of and southern parts of the South Atlantic until early the expected fades2. Hachures designate periods of Senonian time. A mid-Albian to Santonian hiatus increased dissolution in the southeastern Atlantic occurs on the east Falkland Plateau (as well as at Site (Bolli, Ryan, et al., 1975). Horizontal lines indicate the 249 in the Mozambique Basin), and may represent oldest sediment recovered at each site, and hachuring bottom-current erosion at a time when the eastern part under the line indicates that basalt basement was cored. of the Falkland Plateau and the southern tip of Africa Cretaceous hiatuses occur centered in the Turonian had separated enough to allow a major circulation and Campanian. Lower Tertiary hiatuses occur at the pattern to develop. Maestrichtian/Paleocene boundary and the Paleo- Slower than normal accumulation occurred in the cene/Eocene boundary. The Eocene/Oligocene Campanian on the Sào Paulo Plateau and the Rio boundary is marked by hiatus at a number of sites, and Grande Rise. Sediments at both sites show similar the period of non-deposition or erosion continued trends from semi-restricted and periodic reducing through the Oligocene at a number of them. The mid- conditions and terrigenous input in the Santonian, to to late Miocene was a time of major hiatus in the South progressively more oxidizing and open marine Atlantic. conditions through the Santonian and into the The Cenomanian, Turonian, and (?) Coniacian Campanian. On the basis of these similarities, we section is missing at Site 363 in the Frio Ridge section believe the two features had a similar subsidence of the Walvis Ridge, and the Cenomanian and lower history. If we then assume that the east-west structural Turonian are missing at the Sao Paulo Plateau (Site portion of the Rio Grande Rise subsided as a unit block 356). The numerous erosional contacts in the and followed a subsidence curve similar to that uppermost limestones of late Albian age at Frio Ridge applicable to basaltic ocean crust (Sclater et al., 1971), and the mid-Turonian conglomerates at the Sào Paulo we can use certain indicators of depth (discussed in a Plateau site indicate that erosion caused this partially later section) to define a subsidence history for the rise. coeval hiatus at the two sites; the sites are on and According to this subsidence history, the main plateau adjacent to topographic highs, probably parts of the of the rise, at a present depth of 1800 meters, subsided same east-west-trending structural feature which below sea level in the Campanian. We suggest that the Campanian hiatuses at Sites 356 and 357 are associated with extreme dissolution of foraminifers, and are local 2 features resulting from increased current activity Note that in the text the word "hiatus" is used in a general sense to refer to both cases; the reader should refer to Figure 3 for specific associated with the submergence or from a CCD effect. cases. Davies et al. (1975) cite numerous Upper Cretaceous 1101 LEG 39 LEG 40 LEG 3 I I 0 P PL I 10- I 20- I 7 30- / 40- il• i / ΠT/ / 50- 60- m ^ 70- /777 i- /TT7 i i i 90- i 100 HO E CO E in vt> E O E CO r- en , ! i ) CM 6 5 0 8 ) ) 9 CO ) 2 ) (3 224 489 500 (363' 244 210 (355 (358 405 (364 (357 o Q E (354 O ^ Q <C .
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