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Rea & Lyle 2005
Rea, D.K. and Lyle, M.W. (2005). Paleogene calcite compensation depth in the eastern subtropical Pacific: Answers and questions. Paleoceanography 20: doi: 10.1029/2004PA001064. issn: 0883-8305.

Ocean Drilling Program Leg 199 drilled a north-south transect across the Eocene paleoequator in the eastern Pacific, permitting reconstruction the calcite compensation depth (CCD) since earliest Eocene time. The CCD was relatively shallow near the early Eocene Pacific equator, 3200 m, and unlike modern latitudinal CCD gradients deepened to the north (to ~3600 m; paleolatitude ~10¿N). At 41 Ma the CCD underwent a brief, sharp, transient deepening of 700 m, then remained shallow until the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. At the E/O boundary, the CCD deepened by 1200 m in less than 300 kyr. This rapid deepening served to more than double the area of seafloor subject to CaCO3 deposition. Sea level fall associated with ice volume buildup, and ensuing shelf-basin fractionation, is unlikely to be the sole cause of the increased deep-ocean CaCO3 burial; rather, a sudden, rapid increase in the amount of Ca entering the ocean appears necessary to explain the observations.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Oceanography, Biological and Chemical, Sedimentation, Information Related to Geologic Time, Paleogene, Geographic Location, Pacific Ocean, Marine Geology and Geophysics, Ocean drilling, Information Related to Geologic Time, Cenozoic, ODP Leg 199, calcite compensation depth, Pacific Ocean, Paleogene
Journal
Paleoceanography
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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