HR: 1340h
AN: PP33A-1555    [Abstracts]
TI: Sedimentary Characterization of Nazca Ridge ODP Site 1237: Plio-Pleistocene Record of Continental Erosion and Bottom Water Influence
AU: * DiLeo, K V
EM: kadileo@exchange.ursinus.edu
AF: Environmental Studies Program, Ursinus College, PO Box 1000, Collegeville, PA 19426 United States
AU: Joseph, L H
EM: Ljoseph@ursinus.edu
AF: Environmental Studies Program, Ursinus College, PO Box 1000, Collegeville, PA 19426 United States
AB: Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1237 (16°0.421'S, 76°22.685'W), drilled ~140 km off the east coast of Peru on the easternmost flank of Nazca Ridge, provides an opportunity to study climatic shifts in the southeastern Pacific Ocean over the last thirty million years. Sediment deposition at this location has been influenced by movement through various oceanic current systems, from a relatively low productivity open ocean setting to a high productivity upwelling zone along the coast of Peru, as the tectonic plate subducts under South America. Today, near the eastern edge of the Peru-Chile current at a water depth of 3212 m, this site is located in the transition zone between Antarctic Circumpolar Deep Water and Pacific Central Water and is close enough to the continent to collect terrigenous sediment from South America. Plio-Pleistocene sediment (~100 mcd) from Site 1237 is comprised of white to light greenish gray clayey nannofossil ooze (Lithologic Unit IB) and clay to ooze with similar percentages of clay minerals, nannofossils, and diatoms (Unit IA). Shipboard results indicated linear sedimentation rates of ~20-30 m/my and siliciclastic mass accumulation rates (MARs) of ~1 g/cm²/ky during this time period. Approximately 90 Plio-Pleistocene samples were analyzed for bulk magnetic susceptibility, anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS; P' and T), organic carbon content, and calcium carbonate content to aid in interpretation of climatic and oceanic conditions that existed at the time of sediment deposition. Bulk magnetic susceptibility values are very low (10^-6 to 10^-7 SI, or negative) at the base of the record through ~60 mcd(~3 Ma), gradually increase to a peak value of ~3.7 x 10^-4 SI at ~22 mcd (~1 Ma), decreasing and subsequently increasing for the remainder of the record. In the upper part of the record (above 60 mcd) where bulk magnetic susceptibility values are >10^-6, P' values (strength of magnetic susceptibility), which can be used to interpret the strength of the depositing current, range from ~1.005 to ~1.051 and indicate that most samples have experienced current influence from bottom water currents. Calcium carbonate percentages are high (~90%) at the base of the record, decline gradually from ~60 until ~30 mcd (~1.2 Ma), and maintain a low percentage (~10%) for the remainder of the record although calcareous nannofossils are still abundant. Although not described shipboard as a lithologic boundary, a number of gradual, but distinct, changes in the characteristics analyzed in this study occur at ~3 Ma. Increased ash input from 3 to 1 Ma is not likely the only reason for the changes noted, although the ash may be indicative of increased activity and mountain building in the Columbian Andes; detailed terrigenous MARs will aid in interpretation of continental conditions at this time. Tighter age control and grain size analyses (combined with the AMS results) may provide insight into the effects of Northern Hemisphere glaciation on oceanic currents off the coast of Peru.
DE: 1512 Environmental magnetism
DE: 3022 Marine sediments: processes and transport
DE: 4863 Sedimentation (1861)
DE: 4900 PALEOCEANOGRAPHY (0473, 3344)
DE: 9355 Pacific Ocean
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005