ODP Leg 189 Sediment Cores from the Tasmanian Gateway, Cretaceous to Holocene

4539 meters of marine sediment core were recovered from five sites in the Tasmanian Gateway with an 89% recovery rate. This dataset from the Ocean Drilling Program's Leg 189 contains upper Maastrichtian to Holocene records to test the opening of the gateway and its link to Antarctic glaciation. The Australian Ocean Data Network hosts this synthesis, last updated in 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling the thermal isolation of Antarctica based on sediment composition shifts from siliciclastic to carbonate.
• Analyzing microfossil assemblages (palynomorphs, diatoms, nannofossils, foraminifers) for paleoenvironmental reconstruction.
• Dating the onset of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current based on unconformities and sediment changes described in the sequence.
• Correlating regional tectonic subsidence events with global climatic cooling evidence from the late Eocene to Oligocene.

Strengths

• High core recovery rate of 89% across 4539 meters drilled.
• Provides a largely continuous sedimentary sequence spanning from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to the Holocene.
• Multi-site coverage across bathyal depths in the Tasmanian Gateway for regional comparison.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data freshness should be verified; last update is listed as 2026-06-23.

Provenance

Source

Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 189, hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Scientific ocean drilling and core recovery from five sites.

Time Range

Upper Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) to Holocene.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 05:08:24.930490

Geography

Tasmanian Gateway, submerged continental blocks south of Tasmania.