ODP Leg 188: Cenozoic Glacial Transitions in Prydz Bay, East Antarctica

Drilling during Leg 119 (1988) and Leg 188 (2000) of the Ocean Drilling Program provides direct evidence for Cenozoic paleoenvironmental changes in the Prydz Bay region. Cores from Sites 1165-1167 reveal transitions from Late Cretaceous alluvial plains to an Oligocene marine shelf environment and the first ice sheet advance. The dataset is hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network and was last updated on 2026-06-23.

Use Cases

• Modeling the transition from fluvio-deltaic to marine continental shelf environments based on the described late Eocene to early Oligocene shift.
• Analyzing the onset of glaciation based on evidence of late Eocene mountain glaciation grain textures.
• Reconstructing preglacial vegetation changes based on descriptions of Late Cretaceous conifer woodland and Eocene Nothofagus rainforest scrub.
• Interpreting seismic data to infer shelf progradation and submarine canyon formation for the early Oligocene to early Miocene period where cores are absent.

Strengths

• Provides direct evidence from two Ocean Drilling Program legs (1988 and 2000) spanning multiple sites (1165-1167).
• Covers a long-term geological sequence from the Late Cretaceous through the Cenozoic era.
• Integrates core data with seismic data interpretation for periods where physical cores do not exist.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the Prydz Bay region and the Ocean Drilling Program's specific drill sites.

Provenance

Source

Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Legs 119 and 188.

Collection Method

Ocean drilling and core extraction, supplemented by seismic data interpretation.

Time Range

Late Cretaceous to Cenozoic (including late Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 05:18:47.788038; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Prydz Bay region, East Antarctica.