Integrated chronostratigraphic calibration of the Oligocene-Miocene boundary at 24.0 ± 0.1 Ma from the CRP-2A drill core, Ross Sea, Antarctica

• Main Authors: Wilson, G.S., Roberts, A.P., Harwood, D.M., Fielding, C.R., Watkins, D.K., Naish, T.R., Florindo, F., Sagnotti, L., Scherer, R.P., Villa, G., Lavelle, M., McIntosh, W.C., Bohaty, S.M., Verosub, K.L.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2002
• Subjects: Ross Sea; Cape Roberts; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/45395/; https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/45395/1/54._Wilson_et_al._Geology_PUB_VERSION.pdf

An expanded Oligocene-Miocene boundary interval recovered in the Cape Roberts Project CRP-2A core from beneath the Ross Sea, Antarctica, has yielded a high-resolution integrated chrono stratigraphy that has, in turn, enabled a new, more direct, calibration of magnetic polarity and biostratigraphic events. The Oligocene-Miocene boundary interval in the CRP-2A core comprises three 60-m-thick, rapidly deposited (>0.5 m/k.y.) sedimentary sequences (sequences 9, 10, and 11). In sequences 10 and 11, single-crystal, laser-fusion 40Ar/39Ar analyses of anorthoclase phenocrysts from two tephra horizons independently calibrate the CRP-2A magnetic-polarity stratigraphy and age model. Sequences 10 and 11 encompass subchron C6Cn.3n, which is dated as 24.3 ± 0.1 to 24.16 ± 0.1 Ma. Sequence 9 is interpreted to encompass subchron C6Cn.2n and the Oligocene-Miocene boundary, which is dated as 24.0 ± 0.1 Ma. These ages are 0.2 m.y. older than those of the geomagnetic polarity time scale calibrated from seafloor-spreading ridges and 0.9–1.3 m.y. older than the newly proposed astronomically calibrated ages. We contend that the discrepancy with the astronomically calibrated ages arises from a mismatch of three 406 k.y. eccentricity cycles or a 1.2 m.y. modulation of obliquity amplitude in the astronomical calibration of the Oligocene–Miocene time scale.