Neogene magneto- and biostratigraphy of ODP Leg 104 holes, supplement to: Ciesielski, Paul F; Case, Susan M (1989): Neogene paleoceanography of the Norwegian Sea based upon silicoflagellate assemblage changes in ODP Leg 104 sedimentary sequences. In: Eldholm, O; Thiede, J; Taylor, E; et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results, College Station, TX (Ocean Drilling Program), 104, 527-541

• Main Authors: Ciesielski, Paul F, Case, Susan M
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 1989
• Subjects: Drilling/drill rig; Leg104; Joides Resolution; Ocean Drilling Program ODP; Norwegian Sea; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.738313; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.738313

Silicoflagellate assemblages of ODP Leg 104 Neogene sequences are the basis of an interpretation of changes in the Neogene paleoenvironment of the Norwegian Sea. Fluctuations in the percentages of temperature and nutrient-sensitive taxonomic groups document major changes in sea-surface conditions. A brief, but distinct, cooling event occurred at 18.0-17.5 Ma which resulted in the disappearance of Naviculopsis. Following this early Miocene cooling a long period of increasing surface-water temperature occurred, leading up to a thermal high in the early middle Miocene (14.0 Ma). The early late Miocene (10.0-9.0 Ma) was distinctly cooler than the middle Miocene, but warmer than the remainder of the Neogene. Conditions between 13.0 and 10.0 Ma are unrecorded because of a regional hiatus, which is the earliest evidence for an end to the more temperate and stable conditions of the early to middle middle Miocene. A major plunge in temperatures occurred between 8.5 and 7.4 Ma and during the remainder of the late Miocene and Pliocene; from 7.4 to 2.65 Ma subpolar conditions prevailed. Silicoflagellates disappeared, except for sporadic occurrences, at 2.64 Ma with the beginning of dominant glacial sedimentation. Biogenic opal is absent in sediments younger than 0.76 Ma, indicating the dominance of glacial conditions with extensive sea ice.