Transkei Basin and Natal Valley: Witness to changing current dynamics in the African-Southern Ocean gateway since the Late Cretaceous

• Applicant: Dr. Gabriele Uenzelmann-Neben
• Subject Area: Geology ; Geophysics ; Oceanography
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 564897360

IODP Expedition 392 drilled four sites in the African-Southern Ocean Gateway to reconstruct the tectonic and climatic evolution the Late Cretaceous. This gateway today constitutes an integral interocean link in the exchange of shallow and deep water masses between the Atlantic, the Indian and the Southern Ocean and thus significantly contributes to the global overturning circulation. The proposal presented here concentrates on the Campanian to present record retrieved at Exp 392 Site U1581 in the Transkei Basin. This record, supplemented by the high-resolution late Neogene record drilled at Exp 361 Site U1474 in the northern Natal Valley, will allow a) the development of a regional seismostratigraphic model updating the published ones, b) the reconstruction of the changing paleodepth and variations in the related depositional environments, c) the reconstruction of the influence the progressive opening of the African-Southern Ocean Gateway had on the Late Cretaceous to Paleogene deep water circulation, and d) the determination of the effect of far field events (e.g., glaciation of Antarctica, development of West Antarctic Ice sheet, closure of the Indonesian Throughflow and the Central American Seaway) on the circulation and climate in the northeastern African-Southern Ocean gateway.

• DFG Programme: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 527: Infrastructure area - International Ocean Drilling Programme³ (IODP³)
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Uisdean Nicholson