Open AccessDrilling probes past carbon cycle perturbations on the Demerara Rise
Author(s) -
Erbacher Jochen,
Mosher David,
Malone Mitchell
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2004eo060001
Subject(s) - geology , cretaceous , paleontology , oceanography , drilling , escarpment , cenozoic , structural basin , mechanical engineering , engineering
Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 207 recently cored sediments on the Demerara Rise at ∼9°N in the tropical Atlantic and successfully recovered continuous records of the Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary (K/T), and Cretaceous Ocean Anoxic Events (OAEs). The Demerara Rise, north of Suriname and French Guyana, South America, is an ideal drilling target because expanded sections of Cretaceous‐ and Paleogene‐age deep‐sea sediments are shallowly buried and exist with good stratigraphic control in expanded sections. Furthermore, the northwestern escarpment of the Demerara Rise offered the possibility of recovering sediments along a paleo‐depth transect. The paleogeographic position of the Demerara Rise lies within the core of the tropics in a location near the Equatorial Atlantic Gateway between South America and Africa, which is believed to have played an important role in controlling changes in global climate during the Cretaceous.