IODP's Untapped Wealth: Multi-Parameter Logging of Legacy Core

M E Holland,P J Schultheiss,R M Carter,J A Roberts,T J G Francis

doi:10.5194/sd-1-50-2005

M E Holland, P J Schultheiss + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-1-50-2005

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Abstract

Since 1968, the Deep - Sea Drilling Project ( DSDP) and the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) have recovered and stored approximately 300 km of core. Half of every core has been kept as an archive, normally only available for viewing. These archive half-cores are well suited for automated non-destructive geophysical measurements (core logging), including many parameters that provide essential data for reconstructing Earth’s climatic history, such as high-resolution magnetic susceptibility, natural gamma spectroscopy, and UV/VIS/IR spectrophotometry. We recently used a Geotek MSCL -X YZ core logger at the IODP West Coast Repository to log archive core halves recovered by the Glomar Challenger in 1983. The MSCL-XYZ system is specifically designed to allow multiparameter, non-destructive geophysical data to be collected easily at high spatial resolutions on up to nine split-core sections between reloading. This enables the machine to be loaded and run unattended for periods of many hours (including overnight and weekends), making it well suited for logging of archive core in a repository environment. The immediate goal was to obtain a high-resolution paleoclimate record for DSDP Site 594, east of New Zealand in the Southwest Pacific, but our underlying intention was to open up the vast reservoir of paleoclimate and other data that await extraction from well-preserved archive-half cores from the previous scientific ocean drilling programs, and now in IODP custody.

Highlights

We obtained complete data sets of natural gamma, magnetic susceptibility, spectral color and RGB digital line scan images from the top 150 m of the sediment column at Deep-Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Site 594 using the MSCL-XYZ (Fig. 1)
The new data collected with the MSCL-XYZ have confirmed the exceptional status of the climatic record from Site 594 through marine oxygen isotope Stages 1–5 (Schultheiss et al, 2004). we interpreted peaks in the magnetic susceptibility record to reflect the presence of sand-sized, ice-rafted terrigenous detritus (IR D)
This data set provides an atmospheric climate record that can be compared with its companion marine benthic oxygen isotope record (Fig. 1)

Summary

Introduction

We obtained complete data sets of natural gamma, magnetic susceptibility, spectral color and RGB digital line scan images from the top 150 m of the sediment column at DSDP Site 594 using the MSCL-XYZ (Fig. 1). The new data collected with the MSCL-XYZ have confirmed the exceptional status of the climatic record from Site 594 through marine oxygen isotope Stages 1–5 (Schultheiss et al, 2004). The natural gamma ray record for Site 594 shows a strong half-precessional (~10 ky) rhythmicit y that is mirrored to a lesser extent in the other data sets.

Results

Conclusion