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Major depositional events under the deep Pacific inflow

¹ Department of Earth Sciences, Cardiff University, P.O. Box 914, Cardiff CF10 3YE, UK
² National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 14, 901 Kilbirnie, Wellington, New Zealand
³ Sea Education Association, P.O. Box 6, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA

The main inflow of deep water to the Pacific is via a deep western boundary current. As the current passes along the continental margin off eastern New Zealand, it receives much terrigenous sediment, which, together with the biogenic pelagic supply, has been reworked into a suite of large drifts. Ocean Drilling Program Site 1123 on the North Chatham Drift and Site 1124 on the Rekohu Drift have yielded high-resolution and well- dated records of carbonate and terrigenous fluxes for the past 3 m.y. Deposition at both drifts was affected by a deep western boundary current background sediment flux and by glacial-interglacial cycles. In addition, drifts received site-specific flux pulses caused by (1) sediment remobilization under a vigorous Antarctic Circumpolar Current, (2) increased oceanic productivity, (3) overspill of sediment from the newly formed Hikurangi Channel, and (4) generally increased discharge from the Hikurangi Channel under intensified Quaternary uplift and paleoclimatic oscillations.

Key Words: southwest Pacific • mass accumulation rates • deep western boundary current • Ocean Drilling Program • sediment drifts

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				B. W. Hayward, H. R. Grenfell, A. T. Sabaa, and E. Sikes Deep-sea benthic foraminiferal record of the mid-Pleistocene transition in the SW Pacific Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 2005; 247(1): 85 - 115. [Abstract] [PDF]