The Atlantic Deep Western Boundary Current During the Early Eocene Warm Period

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

Award is for a seismic stratigraphic mapping and piston coring project to determine the age, configuration and paleoceanographic significance of the sedimentary sequences on J Anomaly Ridge and Southeast Newfoundland Ridge. These ridges are ideally located to record any evidence for strong boundary currents dating to the early Paleogene. Existing data show that the ridge system is draped by sedimentary sequences that record development of the boundary current during the Oligocene and Neogene, and suggest that deposition of Paleocene-Eocene sequences may have also been influenced by currents. If strong Deep Western Boundary Current or related northward flow occurred in the North Atlantic prior to the onset of extensive Antarctic glaciation in the early Oligocene, it likely affected deposition of sediment on the J Anomaly Ridge and Southeast Newfoundland Ridge. The seismic stratigraphic mapping and piston coring will test the hypothesis that the sediment sequences deposited on these ridges record strong overturning circulation in the North Atlantic prior to the onset of Antarctic glaciation.