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there are also other factors whích must be considered. The<br />

abyssal circulation of the North Atlantic probably was<br />

initiated sometime between Paleocene and middle Eocene time,<br />

when Greenland and Scandinavia separated far enough to allow<br />

cold dense water to invade the North Atlantic Basin from<br />

the Norwegian Sea (Jones and others, 1970; Berggren and<br />

Hollister, 1972; Ewing and Hollister, 1972). The introduction<br />

of this cold water mass probably correlates with the<br />

initiation of the Western Boundary Undercurrent, and we<br />

could expect that the WBUC was transporting sediment from<br />

the continental margin of North America to the Greater<br />

Antilles Outer Ridge by early to middle Eocene time.<br />

Fur the r m 0 r e, i fLay erA i nth e Sou t hAt 1 ant i cis s y n c h r 0 n 0 us<br />

wi th Hori zon A in the North Atl anti c, as proposed by<br />

Le Pichon and others (1971), then the sequence of seismic<br />

reflectors recorded in Vema Channel in the South Atlantic<br />

suggests that Antarctic Bottom Water must also have entered<br />

the western North Atlantic basin about this time (Fig. 8.2).<br />

These abys sa l-ci rcul ati on/sedi mentati on events, together<br />

with the cessation of downslope sedimentation to the<br />

Greater Antilles Outer Ridge from Puerto Rico, are suggested<br />

here as the cause for the acoustic and compositional changes<br />

which are marked by Datum A.<br />

The effect of these events on source areas for the<br />

sediment composing the Greater Antilles Outer Ridge is<br />

evident in data on sediment composition from DSDP Site 28<br />

224

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