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Obvi ous ly, di 1 uti on of the northern assemol age of<br />

minerals should be expected, since much of the sediment<br />

appears to have been transported more than 2500 km to the<br />

Greater Antilles Outer Ridge. This dilution by minerals<br />

other than illite and chlorite may explain why chlorite on<br />

the outer ri dge is at the lower end of the spectrum for<br />

chlorite abundances in a northern assemblage (Figs. 4.9, 4.10).<br />

There is no other source for the chlorite-enriched<br />

sediment on the Greater Antilles Outer Ridge (Fig. 4.9), nor<br />

is the assembl age found outsi de the areas i nfl uenced by the<br />

Western Boundary Undercurrent. The Antarctic Bottom Water<br />

which flows into the Puerto Rico Trench and onto the Nares<br />

Abyssal Plain from the south appears to carry a very small<br />

amount of sediment in suspension (Eittreim and Ewing, 1972),<br />

and the suspended materi al probably consi sts of a tropi cal<br />

mineral assemblage of kaolinite and montmorillonite derived<br />

from South America.<br />

It has been suggested that chlorite may form in the<br />

mari ne envi ronment by al terati on of other conti nentally<br />

derived material (Griffin and Ingram, 1955; Powers, 1957),<br />

but the importance of this mechanism is doubtful. Hathaway<br />

(1972b) demonstrated that chlorite is more abundant in<br />

younger sediments at DSDP Site 105 on the continental rise,<br />

so it is unlikely that prolonged exposure to marine conditions<br />

had caused diagenetic chlorite formation. The close correla-<br />

tion between continental chlorite sources and marine chlorite<br />

99<br />

)<br />

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