Ocean Drilling Program Leg 189 recovered 4539 meters of marine core from five sites in the Tasmanian Gateway, with a recovery rate of 89%. The dataset, hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network, documents upper Maastrichtian to Holocene sediments to study the opening of the gateway and its impact on the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and global climate. The sedimentary sequence includes shallow marine mudstones, glauconitic siltstones, and pelagic carbonates.
Use Cases
- Modeling paleoclimate shifts based on sediment composition changes from siliciclastic to carbonate
- Analyzing microfossil assemblages (palynomorphs, diatoms, nannofossils, foraminifers) for paleoenvironmental reconstruction
- Studying the timing and impact of gateway opening on ocean circulation patterns
- Correlating sedimentary unconformities with major climatic events like the Eocene/Oligocene boundary
Strengths
- 4539 meters of largely continuous core recovered
- 89% recovery rate for the drilled material
- Detailed geological description of sediment types and microfossil content
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/temporal bias inherent to the specific drilling sites
Provenance
- Source
- Australian Ocean Data Network
- Collection Method
- Core samples drilled by the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 189.
- Time Range
- Upper Maastrichtian to Holocene (Cretaceous to present)
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-04-16 16:27:20.813186; freshness should be verified
- Geography
- Tasmanian Gateway, bathyal depths on submerged continental blocks