Project Details
Projekt
Evolution of deep-ocean circulation during the opening of the Atlantic Ocean in the latest Cretaceous and Paleocene
Subject Area
Palaeontology
Term
from 2012 to 2019
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 224583276
The mode of ocean circulation during latest Cretaceous to Paleocene times (75-55 Ma) is poorly understood to date and possible sites of deep-water formation relative to the opening of the Atlantic Ocean are controversially debated. This project aims at the investigation of the conditions of intermediate- and deep-water formation and exchange in the individual sub-basins of the North and South Atlantic Ocean. It is planned to perform Nd-isotope analyses of sediment coatings from a series of DSDP- and ODP-Sites in different sub-basins and different water depths in the Northand South Atlantic Ocean. This allows to identify different intermediate and deep-water masses by recognition of their potential source region and the detection of time intervals of established deepwater connections between the oceanic sub-basins. The stratigraphic reliable integration of newand available data will provide answers to the following questions: 1) when became the individual sub-basins of the deep Atlantic Ocean fully integrated into the global thermohaline circulation, 2) in which way formed sub-oceanic volcanic plateaus barriers for deep waters, and 3) how involved was the Caribbean Sea as equatorial gateway for deep-water exchange between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans.
DFG Programme
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