ODP Leg 188: Prydz Bay Cenozoic Glacial Transitions from Antarctic Drilling

Drilling during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 119 (1988) and Leg 188 (2000) provides direct evidence for Cenozoic paleoenvironmental changes in the Prydz Bay region, East Antarctica. Cores from Sites 1165-1167 reveal transitions from a Late Cretaceous alluvial plain to an Eocene rainforest scrub, followed by a permanent shift to a marine shelf and the first ice sheet advance. The dataset is provided by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Use Cases

• Modeling the transition from fluvio-deltaic to marine shelf environments based on core and seismic data.
• Analyzing the timing and evidence of the first ice sheet advance onto the shelf based on overcompacted glacial sediments.
• Reconstructing preglacial vegetation changes (e.g., conifer woodland to Nothofagus scrub) from core evidence.
• Inferring continental shelf progradation and submarine canyon formation for periods with missing cores using seismic data.

Strengths

• Direct evidence from two Ocean Drilling Program legs (Leg 119 in 1988 and Leg 188 in 2000).
• Cores cover multiple sites (1165, 1166, 1167) across the continental margin.
• Data spans a long-term sequence from the Late Cretaceous through the Cenozoic.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Cores do not exist for the early Oligocene to early Miocene, requiring inference from seismic data.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Ocean drilling core samples and seismic data interpretation.

Time Range

Late Cretaceous through Cenozoic, with specific focus on late Eocene to early Oligocene transition.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 22:15:14.248398; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Prydz Bay region, East Antarctica.