The ichnology of carbonate drifts

Carbonate drifts have so far not been as intensely investigated as their siliciclastic equivalents, especially from an ichnological perspective. The aim of this work is therefore to provide an overview of the different bioturbation styles in carbonate drifts for ichnologists and sedimentologists working in such deposits. Different types of carbonate drifts from the Maldives were studied to address this objective. The cores recovered during International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 359 were examined to provide the sedimentological and ichnological data for a detailed analysis of the ichnology of carbonate drifts. The ichnological characteristics of the Maldives drifts are compared to other carbonate drifts in order to discuss similarities and differences, and thus provide an overview of the general characteristics of carbonate drift ichnology. These drifts are located in the Santaren Channel which lines Great Bahama Bank, along the Marion Plateau in Australia, in the Limassol and Larnaca basins in Cyprus and in the Danish Basin in Denmark. The common characteristics of bioturbation in carbonate drifts are: (i) the complete bioturbation of the sediment with bioturbation indexes between four and six; (ii) the occurrence of distinctive trace fossils limited to facies contacts or condensed intervals; (iii) a typical ichnoassemblage consisting of Thalassinoides, Scolicia, Planolites, Zoophycos, Chondrites, Phycosiphon and Palaeophycus; (iv) the contiguous occurrence of ichnogenera from different tiers, with only Zoophycos and Chondrites as deep tiers; and (v) distinct infills of the traces including particulate organic matter, pyrite, silica and celestine. In addition, the main ichnofacies of carbonate drifts is the Zoophycos ichnofacies. Ichnofabrics grade from coarse‐grained and completely bioturbated to ichnofabrics with present to rare trace fossils and preserved sedimentary structures. The type and intensity of the bioturbation is controlled by the amount of organic matter and the oxygenation at the sea floor that is determined by the action of bottom currents and the sea‐level fluctuations affecting the carbonate factory in carbonate platforms bordering the basins where the carbonate drifts form. The study of the bioturbation in core and outcrop provides palaeoenvironmental information about carbonate‐drift deposits that complement the classical sedimentological data.     

Seismic expression of shallow- to deep-water contourites along the south-eastern Brazilian margin

The Neogene-to-Quaternary sediment section along the south-eastern Brazilian margin was deeply influenced by bottom currents acting from the upper slope down to the continental rise in water depths ranging from 100 m to >3,500 m. Different depositional styles are observed as a resultant of the interaction between bottom currents, seafloor topography, available grain size and time span involved in the process. Their importance in the sedimentary record varies in accordance with the intensity of that interaction. Deposits associated to bottom currents are both coarse-grained and fine-grained and are distributed along all margins. The identification of coarse-grained deposits in deep-water is critical for the petroleum industry, thus characterising sandy contourites as relevant for the understanding of reservoir analogues. Slope plastered sand sheets occur in the upper slope setting. They are strike-fed, along slope-elongated and internally characterised by high amplitude seismic reflections usually developing reflection free blankets above erosional terraces due to their small thickness (in average less than 30 m thick). Middle and lower slope contourites are mostly constituted of fine-grained plastered and separated drifts, where a general upslope migration trend and an erosional basal surface are observed. The seafloor topography from the foot of the slope towards the continental rise is controlled by salt walls and diapirs which influence the acceleration of the currents and the development of contourite drifts. Paleoceanographic reconstructions supported by seismic evidence indicate that the major currents sculpting the seafloor are southerly originated and their action can overcome the importance of gravity currents where continental supply is reduced.E&P/UN-RIO/ATEX/ABIG-PL     

Deep-water sediments and evolution of the Lower Triassic Xikou Formation in southwestern Fujian, China

The Lower Triassic Xikou Formation in southwestern Fujian, China is a set of complex deep-water sediments which includes turbidites, sandy contourites and isolated olistoliths. Five facies and seven subfacies are recognized in the deep-water turbidites, which are considered to belong to five facies associations of upper, middle and lower fans, respectively. The sandy contourites, which occur within turbidites as isolated thin layers with structures of traction current, are formed by reworking turbidites. They occur in discrete units, not as a part of a vertical sequence of structures, such as Bouma sequence. Paleocurrent directions derived from sandy contourites are perpendicular to or at a large angle of those derived from turbidites. In some areas, within the Formation there exist large oolitic limestone blocks slided from shallow sea. The temporal-spatial distribution of three types of sediments mentioned above and the related evidences could indicate that a passive continental margin from shallow sea to bathyal-abyssal region, dipping toward southeast, once occurred in study area during the early Triassic. The early Triassic represents a period of sealevel uprising. The uprising of sea level and the development of isolated olistoliths probably imply gradual shrinking of an ocean basin at that time. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 49490011, 49702036).     

Tectonic and oceanographic process interactions archived in Late Cretaceous to Present deep‐marine stratigraphy on the Exmouth Plateau,offshore NW Australia

Deep‐marine deposits provide a valuable archive of process interactions between sediment gravity flows, pelagic sedimentation and thermohaline bottom‐currents. Stratigraphic successions can also record plate‐scale tectonic processes (e.g. continental breakup and shortening) that impact long‐term ocean circulation patterns, including changes in climate and biodiversity. One such setting is the Exmouth Plateau, offshore NW Australia, which has been a relatively stable, fine‐grained carbonate‐dominated continental margin from the Late Cretaceous to Present. We combine extensive 2D (~40,000 km) and 3D (3,627 km²) seismic reflection data with lithologic and biostratigraphic information from wells to reconstruct the tectonic and oceanographic evolution of this margin. We identified three large‐scale seismic units (SUs): (a) SU‐1 (Late Cretaceous)—500 m‐thick, and characterised by NE‐SW‐trending, slope‐normal elongate depocentres (c. 200 km long and 70 km wide), with erosional surfaces at their bases and tops, which are interpreted as the result of contour‐parallel bottom‐currents, coeval with the onset of opening of the Southern Ocean; (b) SU‐2 (Palaeocene—Late Miocene)—800 m‐thick and characterised by: (a) very large (amplitude, c. 40 m and wavelength, c. 3 km), SW‐migrating, NW‐SE‐trending sediment waves, (b) large (4 km‐wide, 100 m‐deep), NE‐trending scours that flank the sediment waves and (c) NW‐trending, 4 km‐wide and 80 m‐deep turbidite channel, infilled by NE‐dipping reflectors, which together may reflect an intensification of NE‐flowing bottom currents during a relative sea‐level fall following the establishment of circumpolar‐ocean current around Antarctica; and (c) SU‐3 (Late Miocene—Present)—1,000 m‐thick and is dominated by large (up to 100 km³) mass‐transport complexes (MTCs) derived from the continental margin (to the east) and the Exmouth Plateau Arch (to the west), and accumulated mainly in the adjacent Kangaroo Syncline. This change in depositional style may be linked to tectonically‐induced seabed tilting and folding caused by collision and subduction along the northern margin of the Australian plate. Hence, the stratigraphic record of the Exmouth Plateau provides a rich archive of plate‐scale regional geological events occurring along the distant southern (2,000 km away) and northern (1,500 km away) margins of the Australian plate.     

Input of Glaciomarine Sediments along the East Antarctic Continental Margin; Depositional Processes on the Cosmonaut Sea Continental Slope and Rise and a Regional Acoustic Stratigraphic Correlation from 40° W to 80° E

Multichannel seismic reflection data from the Cosmonaut Sea margin of East Antarctica have been interpreted in terms of depositional processes in the continental slope and rise area. A major sediment lens is present below the upper continental rise along the entire Cosmonaut Sea margin. The lens probably consists of sediments supplied from the shelf and slope, being constantly reworked by westward flowing bottom currents, which redeposited the sediments into a large scale drift deposit prior to the main glaciogenic input along the margin. High-relief semicircular or elongated depositional structures are also found on the upper continental rise stratigraphically above the regional sediment lens, and were deposited by the combined influence of downslope and alongslope sediment transport. On the lower continental rise, large-scale sediment bodies extend perpendicular to the continental margin and were deposited as a result of downslope turbidity transport and westward flowing bottom currents after initiation of glacigenic input to the slope and rise. We compare the seismostratigraphic signatures along the continental margin segments of the adjacent Riiser Larsen Sea, the Weddell Sea and the Prydz Bay/Cooperation Sea, focussing on indications that may be interpreted as a preglacial-glaciomarine transition in the depositional environment. We suggest that earliest glaciogenic input to the continental slope and rise occurred in the Prydz Bay and possibly in the Weddell Sea. At a later stage, an intensification of the oceanic circulation pattern occurred, resulting in the deposition of the regional plastered drift deposit along the Cosmonaut Sea margin, as well as the initiation of large drift deposits in the Cooperation Sea. At an even later stage, possibly in the middle Miocene, glacial advances across the continental shelf were initiated along the Cosmonaut Sea and the Riiser Larsen Sea continental margins.     

Recognition of contour-current influence in mixed contourite-turbidite sequences of the western Weddell Sea,Antarctica

Sedimentary processes and structures across the continental rise in the western Weddell Sea have been investigated using sediment acoustic and multichannel seismic data, integrated with multibeam depth sounding and core investigations. The results show that a network of channels with associated along-channel ridges covers the upper continental slope. The seismic profiles reveal that the channels initially developed as erosive turbidite channels with associated levees on their northern side due to Coriolis force. Later they were partly or fully infilled, probably as a result of decreasing turbidite activity. Now the larger ones exist as erosive turbidite channels of reduced size, whereas the smaller ones are non-erosive channels, their shape being maintained by contour current activity. Drift bodies only developed where slumps caused a distinctive break in slope inclination on the upper continental rise, which served to initiate the growth of a drift body fed by contour currents or by the combined action of turbidites and contourites. The history of sedimentation can be reconstructed tentatively by correlation of seismo-stratigraphic units with the stages of evolution of the drifts on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula. Three stages can be distinguished in the western Weddell Sea after a pre-drift stage, which is delimited by an erosional unconformity at the top: (1) a growth stage, dominated by turbidites, with occasional occurrence of slumps during its initial phase; (2) during a maintenance stage turbiditiy-current intensity (and presumably sedimentation rate also) decreased, probably as a result of the ice masses retreating from the shelf edge, and sedimentation became increasingly dominated by contour current activity; and (3) a phase of sheeted-sequence formation. A southward decrease in sediment thickness shows that the Larsen Ice Shelf plays an important role in sediment delivery to the western Weddell Sea. This study shows that the western Weddell Sea has some characteristics in common with the southern as well as the northwestern Weddell Sea: contour currents off the Larsen Ice Shelf have been present for a long time, probably since the late Miocene, but during times of high sediment input from the shelves as a result of advancing ice masses a channel-levee system developed and dominated over the contour-current transport of sediment. At times of relatively low sediment input the contour-current transport dominated, leading to the formation of drift deposits on the upper continental rise. Seaward of areas without shelf ice masses the continental rise mainly shows a rough topography with small channels and underdeveloped levees. The results demonstrate that sediment supply is an important, maybe the controlling factor of drift development on the Antarctic continental rise.     

Seismic stratigraphy of the Upper Quaternary deposits on the northeastern slope of the Ceará Rise (Central Atlantic)

This study is focused on interpretation of ultrahigh-resolution seismoacoustic data from the northeastern slope of the Ceará Rise (Central Atlantic) acquired using the SES 2000 deep parametric narrow-beam subbottom profiler during cruise 35 of RV Akademik Ioffe in 2011. The geologic nature of most of the detected reflectors is constrained by correlation of the results of seismoacoustic profiling with core data collected in frame of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP site 929A-E). Detailed seismostratigraphic study of the Upper Quaternary deposits in the study area has implications for better understanding of the role of gravity flows and bottom currents in sedimentation on the NE slope of the rise for the past 1.2 Myr.     

南海北部第四系深层等深流沉积特征及类型*

以地震资料为基础, 对南海北部第四系深层等深流沉积进行了研究。南海北部水深约1200～3000m范围内发育大型长条状漂积体、限制型漂积体、陆坡席状漂积体及沉积物波。大型长条状漂积体外形为丘状, 水道在靠陆一侧发育。限制型漂积体主要沉积于地形突起之间的地势相对低洼处, 外形多平坦, 水道较为发育。陆坡席状漂积体外形为席状。沉积物波面积较大, 部分与漂积体伴生。深层等深流在自北东向南西沿南海陆架运动过程中, 在中上陆坡由于地形变化相对较大及科氏力作用影响形成螺旋型等深流, 进而产生次生环流, 形成大型长条状漂积体及限制型漂积体。在中下陆坡因地形相对平坦、开阔, 等深流为层状水流, 多形成陆坡席状漂积体。本研究不仅能提高对南海深层等深流沉积的认识, 还能为油气勘探服务。