A young porcellanite occurrence from the Southwest Indian Ridge

A porcellanite layer, probably younger than 0.6-0.4 Ma, of a nearly monomineralic composition of opal-CT was sampled on the Southwest Indian Ridge during Polarstern cruise ANT-VI/3. The intense cementation of the rock, together with recent findings by the Ocean Drilling Program (Legs 113 and 120) an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine Geology
Main Authors: Bohrmann, Gerhard, Kuhn, Gerhard, Abelmann, Andrea, Gersonde, Rainer, Fütterer, Dieter
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 1990
Subjects:
Online Access:https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/31342/
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/31342/1/1-s2.0-002532279090034H-main.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1016/0025-3227(90)90034-H
Description
Summary:A porcellanite layer, probably younger than 0.6-0.4 Ma, of a nearly monomineralic composition of opal-CT was sampled on the Southwest Indian Ridge during Polarstern cruise ANT-VI/3. The intense cementation of the rock, together with recent findings by the Ocean Drilling Program (Legs 113 and 120) and the occurrence of a unique older porcellanite from Eltanin Core 47-15, provides evidence of very early silica precipitation in pure diatom oozes of the Southern Ocean. Such porcellanites occur in shallowly buried young sediments and provide a contrast to the established concepts of porcellanite formation.