Kerguelen Plateau Drift Deposits: outstanding high-resolution chronicle of Cenozoic climatic and oceanographic changes in the southern Indian Ocean
Located in a key region in the southern Indian Ocean the complex topography of the Kerguelen Plateau, one of the world’s largest Large Igneous Provinces, has a strong influence on pathways of water masses within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and the Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). Topograph...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Conference Object |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
2017
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| Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/44698/ https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.50931 |
| Summary: | Located in a key region in the southern Indian Ocean the complex topography of the Kerguelen Plateau, one of the world’s largest Large Igneous Provinces, has a strong influence on pathways of water masses within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and the Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). Topographic highs like the Williams Ridge at the Kerguelen Plateau reduce the flow of water masses leading to the deposition of thick sediment packages. Gaps and narrow passages in contrast lead to erosion and non-deposition. In the Cenozoic era significant modifications in pathways and intensity of those water masses have been caused by the tectonic development of the Kerguelen Plateau as well as the opening of the Tasman Gateway, the Drake Passage and major global climatic changes. In the Kerguelen Plateau region all of these changes are explicitly well documented in the formation of sedimentary structures, e.g. sediment drifts, supposedly at very high resolution. Studying these sedimentary structures using high-resolution seismic reflection data in combination with geological information from ODP Sites 747-751 will provide new insights into the evolution and dynamics of the ACC and AABW in the southern Indian Ocean. New high-quality seismic data from the Labuan and Ragatt Basin area, which will be collected using the German RV Sonne, will allow studying the interaction of climatic and tectonic changes of the last 66 million years and provide important information on the formation and dynamics of the Antarctic ice sheet due to the unique location of the Kerguelen Plateau. The seismic study is complemented by geological sampling to enable dating of reflections terminating at the seafloor where no ODP drill hole exist. |
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