The Kerguelen Plateau: new paleontologic and paleomagnetic age constraints on growth history from ODP Leg 183 drilling

• Main Authors: Wise, SW, Coxall, HK, Wahnert, V, Antretter, MJ, Inokuchi, H, Coffin, MF, Frey, FA, Wallace, PJ, McArthur, JM, Weis, D, Zhao, X, Teagle, DAH, Saccocia, PJ, Reusch, DN, Pringle, MS, Nicolaysen, KE, Neal, CR, Muller, RD, Moore, CL, Mahoney, JJL, Keszthelyi, L, Duncan, RA, Delius, H, Damuth, JE, Damasceno, D, Boore, MK, Boehm, F, Barling, J, Arndt, NT
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: RSNZ Publishing 2002
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Geology; Marine Geoscience; Elan Bank; Indian; Kerguelen; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/111148

Although the submergent Kerguelen Plateau(KP), a large igneous province in the Southern Indian Ocean,was initiated after the rifting of India from Antarctica, i tsconstruction, fed by the Kerguelen hot spot, has taken placeover the past c. 114 m. y. Preliminary shipboard paleontologicand paleomagnetic dates from ODP Leg 183 on marinesediments above igneous basement help constraint thegrowth history of this feature. The oldest such date is lateAlbian (105- 106 Ma or younger) from Site 1136 on thesouthern K.P, whereas the youngest is early Oligocene (moreprecisely, 34 Ma) from Sites 1139 and 1140 on the northernKP. Elan Bank provided intermediate ages of late Campanian(c. 75 Ma); however, Site. 1 138 on the central KP yieldedlower Turonian (c. 93.5 Ma) marine sediments (Cenomanian/Turonian boundary "black shales") above upper Albian -lowest Cenomanian (c. 102-96 Ma) non-marine (fluvial)claystones, sandstones, and conglomerates. This latter date(from shore-based palynology) diminishes considerably thepreviously inferred age difference between the southern andcentral KP and, in so doing, tends to blur the geophysicaldistinction between these two domains.