Characterization of Eocene-Oligocene Depocenters in Prydz Bay, East Antarctica : A Lithostratigraphic Correlation of ODP Sites 739, 742, and 1166

• Main Author: Ciarletta, Daniel James
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Montclair State University Digital Commons 2014
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Environmental Sciences; Antarctic; East Antarctica; Prydz Bay; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Tidewater
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/380; https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/context/etd/article/1381/viewcontent/Ciarletta_Thesis_2014_Redacted.pdf

The Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) marked a profound shift in the Earth’s climate, as the global greenhouse o f the early Cenozoic gave way to ‘icehouse’ conditions, or a climatic regime influenced by the waxing and waning o f glacial ice. Antarctica was dramatically altered during this time; its formerly cool temperate ecosystems nearly obliterated by the first major episode o f continental glaciation. A record o f this transition appears to be partly preserved in approximately half a kilometer o f sediments recovered from three holes (at ODP Sites 739, 742, and 1166) bored in the continental margin at Prydz Bay, an embayment o f the East Antarctic coast. Until recently, these holes were never completely described with common nomenclature and analysis. This study re-evaluated these cores under a unified regime, using a laser particle sizer to generate matrix grain size distribution profiles for 253 samples collected from the combined sediment column. Additional analysis o f select samples was performed with a scanning electron microscope to classify grain textures, as well as ICP-OES to provide geochemical information. The results o f this study support stratigraphic relationships between the ODP sites that were previously only inferred through seismic acquisition. This provides a much more complete picture o f the sedimentation processes occurring through the EOT. Chemical and microtextural weathering signals also provide a new window into the environment o f Prydz Bay during the EOT. These signals seem to confirm hypotheses from previous researches that the site featured a cool/temperate environment with tidewater glacial systems in the late Eocene that transitioned into near polar glacier conditions dominated by ice sheet growth by the early Oligocene. Crucially, the results o f this investigation suggest that enhanced glaciation o f the Prydz Bay region was already occurring before the start o f the Oligocene, which suggests that an initial step down in global temperature during the late Eocene (proxied ...