The Cenozoic Southern Ocean
Tectonics, Sedimentation, and Climate Change Between Australia and Antarctica
Geophysical Monograph Series (Series Nr. 151)
1. Edition January 2004
368 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the
Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 151.
Ocean circulation and hence global climate are nowhere more
strongly changed than through the opening or closing of gateways or
seaways that link major oceans. The break-up of Gondwana, and the
northward flight of its continental fragments from Antarctica, is a
case in point. Profound climatic consequences resulted from shifts
in ocean and atmospheric circulation due to drastic changes in
global geography.
During the Cenozoic, the northward flight of southern continents
led to the opening of gateways at southern high latitudes while
progressively restricting and closing gateways in the low
latitudes. Considerable previous research has dealt with the
opening and expansion of the two Cenozoic gateways--the
Tasmanian Gateway south of Australia and the Drake Passage south of
America--which allowed the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC)
to develop and progressively isolate Antarctica thermally. It is
generally accepted that full opening of the Tasmanian Gateway
occurred earlier than that of Drake Passage, although the time of
opening of Drake Passage remains controversial. It has long been
proposed that a climatic threshold leading to major initial
Antarctic ice sheet accumulation occurred during the
Eocene-Oligocene transition as the Tasmanian Gateway opened,
triggering ACC formation and resultant thermal isolation of the
Antarctic continent (Gateway Hypothesis). South of Australia,
Paleogene rifting slowly opened the Australo-Antarctic Gulf, but
the Indian and Pacific Oceans remained separated by the Tasmanian
land bridge until the latest Eocene, preventing earlier development
of the ACC; waters derived from low latitudes efficiently
transported heat towards the Antarctic continent, contributing to
the maintenance of global greenhouse conditions. Early ocean
drilling in the Tasmanian Gateway between Australia and Antarctica
provided a basic framework of paleoenvironmental changes associated
with the opening, but stratigraphic resolution was too limited to
fully test potential interrelationships of plate tectonics,
circum-polar circulation and global climate. So, until recently,
the timing of events has been inadequately constrained.
Introduction
Neville F. Exon, James R Kennett, and Mitchell J. Malone
1
Cretaceous Through Cenozoic
Cenozoic Reconstructions of the Australia-New Zealand-South
Pacific Sector of Antarctica
Steven C. Cande and Joann M. Stock 5
Tectonics and Basin Development of the Offshore Tasmanian Area
Incorporating Results
From Deep Ocean Drilling
Peter J. Hill and Neville E Exon 19
Cenozoic Environments in the Tasmanian Area of the Southern
Ocean (ODP Leg 189):
Inferences From Bulk and Clay Mineralogy
Christian Robert 43
On the Magnetostratigraphy of the East Tasman Plateau, Timing of
the Opening of
the Tasmanian Gateway and Paleoenvironmental Changes
Mike Fuller and Yannick Touchard 63
Magnetostratigraphy of the Pliocene-Pleistocene Sequence and of
the Eocene-Oligocene
Transition at ODP Leg 189 Hole 1168
Y. Touchard and M. Fuller 79
Eocene And Older
The Cretaceous/Paleogene Transition on the East Tasman Plateau,
Southwestern Pacific
Stephen A. Schellenberg, Henk Brinkhuis, Catherine E. Stickley,
Michael Fuller, Frank T. Kyte, and Graham L Williams
93
On the Search for the Paleocene/Eocene Boundary in the Southern
Ocean: Exploring ODP
Leg 189 Holes 1171D and 1172D, Tasman Sea
Ursula Rohl, Henk Brinkhuis, Appy Sluijs, and Mike Fuller
113
Sea Level and Astronomically Induced Environmental Changes in
Middle and Late Eocene
Sediments From the East Tasman Plateau
Ursula Rohl, Henk Brinkhuis, Catherine E. Stickley, Mike Fuller,
Stephen A. Schellenberg,
Gerold Wefer, and Graham L. Williams 127
A Chemostratigraphic and Geochemical Facies Analysis of Strata
Deposited in an Eocene
Australo-Antarctic Seaway: Is Cyclicity Evidence for
Glacioeustasy?
Timothy S. White 153
Oligocene And Younger
Changes in South Ocean Circulation in Late Oligocene to Early
Miocene Time
Helen A. Pfuhl, I. Nicholas McCave, Stephen A. Schellenberg, and
Patrizia Ferretti 173
Quantitative Miocene Calcareous Nannofossil Biostratigraphy From
the Tasmanian Gateway
Kristeen L McGonigal 191
Early to Middle Miocene Paleoceanography in the Southern High
Latitudes Off Tasmania
Atsuhito Ennyu and Michael A. Arthur 215
Paleocenographic Change During the Middle Miocene Climate
Revolution: An Antarctic
Stable Isotope Perspective
A.E. Shevenell and J.P Kennett 235
Late Neogene History of Paleoproductivity and Ice Rafting South
of Tasmania
Liselotte Diester-Haass and Stefan Nees 253
A Deep-Sea Record of the Late Miocene Carbon Shift From the
Southern Tasman Sea
R.A. Tedford and D. C. Kelly 273
Paleo-Export Production, Terrigenous Flux and Sea Surface
Temperatures Around Tasmania--
Implications for Glacial/lnterglacial Changes in the Subtropical
Convergence Zone
Dirk Nurnberg, Natasja Brughmans, Joachim Schdnfeld, Ulysses
Ninnemann, and Christian Dullo 291
Syntheses
Tectono-Sedimentary History of Uppermost Cretaceous Through
Oligocene Sequences From
the Tasmanian Region, A Temperate Antarctic Margin
Neville F. Exon, Henk Brinkhuis, Christian M. Robert, James P.
Kennett, Peter). Hill and
Michael K. Macphail 319
Paleoceanographic Evolution of the Tasmanian Seaway and its
Climatic Implications
James P. Kennett and Neville F. Exon 345
