Ocean Drilling Program Leg 199 Scientific Prospectus Paleogene Equatorial Transect
The Paleogene Equatorial transect (Leg 199, Fig. 1, Table 1) will study the evolution of the equatorial Pacific current and wind system as the Earth went from maximum Cenozoic warmth to initial Antarctic glaciations. The drilling program will be primarily devoted to a transect along 56- to 57-Ma cru...
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Language: | English |
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Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.23.4216 http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/prosp/199_prs/199pros1.pdf |
Summary: | The Paleogene Equatorial transect (Leg 199, Fig. 1, Table 1) will study the evolution of the equatorial Pacific current and wind system as the Earth went from maximum Cenozoic warmth to initial Antarctic glaciations. The drilling program will be primarily devoted to a transect along 56- to 57-Ma crust, old enough to capture the late Paleocene thermal maximum event in the basal, more carbonate-rich sediments. One drill site (Site PAT-8C) will also be drilled on 40 Ma crust to collect a near-equatorial sediment sequence from the middle Eocene through the late Eocene transition to glacial conditions in Antarctica. If the plate tectonic model we used for paleopositions is approximately correct, Site PAT-8C is at the equator at 40 Ma. Because the Pacific plate drifts north with time out of the high productivity equatorial region, Paleogene equatorial sediments are overlain by a thin Neogene section of red clays. The youngest biogenic sediments to be drilled will be early Miocene in age. The. |
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