Volcanic ash deposits of early Eocene age from the Rockall Trough

The stratigraphy of the Rockall Trough (Fig. 1) has proved difficult to elucidate because a mantle of Recent sediments usually prevents piston corers and dredges from sampling older accumulations. Although a seismic stratigraphy has been erected 1,2 , considerable uncertainty surrounds the history o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1982-09, Vol.299 (5881), p.342-344
Main Authors: Jones, E. J. W, Ramsay, A. T. S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:The stratigraphy of the Rockall Trough (Fig. 1) has proved difficult to elucidate because a mantle of Recent sediments usually prevents piston corers and dredges from sampling older accumulations. Although a seismic stratigraphy has been erected 1,2 , considerable uncertainty surrounds the history of sedimentation and, consequently, the petroleum potential of the region. The upper 500–1,000 m of the succession are clearly Cenozoic deposits whose distribution has been strongly influenced by movements of Norwegian Sea overflow water 1 . Deeper in the section, major current-controlled accumulations are absent, a feature observed elsewhere in the Atlantic 1 . In view of the paucity of samples from these older deposits 3 , we report here the recovery of sediments that were laid down in the northern Rockall Trough before polar waters radically changed the depositional regime. The sediments record a period of explosive volcanicity during the early Eocene in the vicinity of the Wyville–Thomson Ridge.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/299342a0