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Title: Expedition 354 Preliminary Report: Bengal Fan
International Ocean Discovery Expedition 354 to 8°N in the Bay of Bengal drilled a seven site, 320 km long transect across the Bengal Fan. Three deep-penetration and an additional four shallow holes give a spatial overview of the primarily turbiditic depositional system that comprises the Bengal deep-sea fan. Sediments originate from Himalayan rivers, documenting terrestrial changes of Himalayan erosion and weathering, and are transported through a delta and shelf canyon, supplying turbidity currents loaded with a full spectrum of grain sizes. Mostly following transport channels, sediments deposit on and between levees while depocenters laterally shift over hundreds of kilometers on millennial timescales. During Expedition 354, these deposits were documented in space and time, and the recovered sediments have Himalayan mineralogical and geochemical signatures relevant for reconstructing time series of erosion, weathering, and changes in source regions, as well as impacts on the global carbon cycle. Miocene shifts in terrestrial vegetation, sediment budget, and style of sediment transport were tracked. Expedition 354 has extended the record of early fan deposition by 10 My into the late Oligocene.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1326927
PAR ID:
10283795
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Preliminary report
Volume:
354
ISSN:
2372-9562
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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  1. ; ; ; (, Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program)
    International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 354 to 8°N in the Bay of Bengal drilled a seven-site, 320 km long transect across the Bengal Fan. Three deep-penetration and an additional four shallow holes give a spatial overview of the primarily turbiditic depositional system that comprises the Bengal deep-sea fan. Sediments originate from Himalayan rivers, documenting terrestrial changes of Himalayan erosion and weathering, and are transported through a delta and shelf canyon, supplying turbidity currents loaded with a full spectrum of grain sizes. Mostly following transport channels, sediments deposit on and between levees while depocenters laterally shift over hundreds of kilometers on millennial timescales. During Expedition 354, these deposits were documented in space and time, and the recovered sediments have Himalayan mineralogical and geochemical signatures relevant for reconstructing time series of erosion, weathering, and changes in source regions, as well as impacts on the global carbon cycle. Miocene shifts in terrestrial vegetation, sediment budget, and style of sediment transport were tracked. Expedition 354 has extended the record of early fan deposition by 10 My into the late Oligocene. 
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  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, International Ocean Discovery Program)
    International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 354 to 8°N in the Bay of Bengal drilled a seven-site, 320 km long transect across the Bengal Fan. Three deep-penetration and an additional four shallow holes give a spatial overview of the primarily turbiditic depositional system that comprises the Bengal deep-sea fan. Sediments originate from Himalayan rivers, documenting terrestrial changes of Himalayan erosion and weathering, and are transported through a delta and shelf canyon, supplying turbidity currents loaded with a full spectrum of grain sizes. Mostly following transport channels, sediments deposit on and between levees while depocenters laterally shift over hundreds of kilometers on millennial timescales. During Expedition 354, these deposits were documented in space and time, and the recovered sediments have Himalayan mineralogical and geochemical signatures relevant for reconstructing time series of erosion, weathering, and changes in source regions, as well as impacts on the global carbon cycle. Miocene shifts in terrestrial vegetation, sediment budget, and style of sediment transport were tracked. Expedition 354 has extended the record of early fan deposition by 10 My into the late Oligocene. 
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  3. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition reports)
    Site U1455 (proposed Site MBF-1A) is the last site drilled during Expedition 354 in the Bengal Fan. It is a reoccupation of Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Site 218 (see Figure F11 in the Expedition 354 summary chapter [France-Lanord et al., 2016e]) (von der Borch, Sclater, et al., 1974), which was the first attempt to drill the Bengal Fan and was only spot cored with the rotary core barrel (RCB) system to 773 meters below seafloor (mbsf). The site is above the eastern flank of the 85°E Ridge at 8°0.42′N, 86°16.97′E at 3743 m water depth. Site U1455 is one of three deep-penetration sites along the Expedition 354 transect dedicated to reveal Neogene fan evolution and Himalayan erosion. This site will also document Pleistocene fan architecture when integrated into the complete seven-site transect. Coring to 900 mbsf was planned to determine Miocene to Pliocene accumulation rates and changes related to Himalayan erosion and environment. The deeper part of the site will extend the existing Site 218 record back into the middle Miocene. Because of time constraints at the end of the expedition, we focused coring on three objectives: the Pleistocene (0–122 mbsf), the late Miocene terrestrial vegetation transition from C3 to C4 plants (360–431 mbsf), and the middle Miocene (773–949 mbsf) to extend the existing core record of Site 218. 
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  4. ; ; ; ; (, Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program)
    During International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 354, seven sites were drilled along a 320 km east–west transect at 8°N, constituting a relic of the Neogene sediment record of Himalayan erosion. Bengal Fan is one of the largest deep-sea fans in the world where turbiditic sediments issued from the Ganga and Brahmaputra River Delta and originally supplied by the Himalayan erosion of silicate and carbonate lithologies are deposited and stored. Quantification of the chemical composition of silicates and carbonates is necessary to understand the tectonoclimatic history of this region. This report presents the major and trace element concentrations of silicate and carbonate fractions of selected turbiditic samples from Sites U1450 and U1451. Efficient washing followed by refined acid leaching of the sediments was performed to eliminate sea salts and carbonates from these marine sediment samples. Shipboard samples show 20%–40% excess sodium concentration associated with sea salt derived from pore water. Weak acid treatment limits the total carbonate content in the samples to less than 0.1%. Depletion of major and trace elements observed due to acid leaching is attributed to the dissolution of carbonates and cations associated with Fe-Mn oxyhydroxides. 
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  5. ; ; (, Scientific prospectus)
    null (Ed.)
    Expedition 354 will drill a transect of holes in the Bay of Bengal to address interactions among the growth of the Himalaya and Tibet, the development of the Asian monsoon, and processes affecting the carbon cycle and global climate. Because sedimentation in the Bengal Fan responds to both climate and tectonic processes, its terrigenous sediment records the past evolution of both the Himalaya and regional climate. The histories of the Himalayan/Tibetan system and the Asian monsoon require sampling different periods of time with different levels of precision. Accordingly, we propose a transect of six holes in the fan at 8°N with two complementary objectives. (1) We will study the early stages of Himalayan erosion, which will bear on the India-Eurasia collision and the development of the Himalaya and Tibet as topographic features. We will drill a deep site (MBF-3A to ~1500 m) in the west flank of the Ninetyeast Ridge where a reflector interpreted as a Paleocene-Eocene unconformity could be reached at a reasonable depth. (2) We will study the Neogene development of the Asian monsoon and its impact on sediment supply and flux. Our east–west transect of drill sites at 8°N will include Site MBF-3A and two other 900 m penetration sites (MBF-1A and MBF-2A) to reach sediment at least as old as 10–12 m.y. Records from the Arabian Sea and the Indian subcontinent suggest that at ~7–8 Ma the intensity of the monsoon increased and C4 plants expanded. Moreover, these changes appear to be linked to changes in the erosional regime as recorded by Ocean Drilling Program Leg 116 and possibly to the tectonic evolution of southeast Asia. This transect will allow study of the extent to which a strengthening of the monsoon encompassed the Bay of Bengal, where increased rainfall, not strengthened wind, characterizes the monsoon, and will allow quantitative studies of the interrelations of climate change and sediment accumulation. In addition, three sites (MBF-4A, MBF-5A, and MBF-6A) will document how the depocenter migrated across this transect during the Pleistocene and will provide the most complete record of channel-derived terrigenous material through this time interval. 
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