Abstract
Abstract. Drilling and coring during IODP Expedition 362 in the eastern Indian Ocean encountered probably the largest wood fragment ever recovered in scientific ocean drilling. The wood is Late Miocene in age and buried beneath ∼800 m of siliciclastic mud and sand of the Bengal–Nicobar Fan. The wood is well preserved. Possible origins include the hinterland to the north, with sediment transported as part of the submarine fan sedimentary processes, or the Sunda subduction zone to the east, potentially as a megathrust tsunami deposit.
Highlights
Coalified (Mustoe, 2018)
During coring at Site U1480, two adjacent cores of interbedded sediment gravity flow and hemipelagic siliciclastic sediment containing large pieces of fossilized wood were recovered at ∼ 840–860 m below the seafloor
McNeill et al.: Late Miocene wood recovered in Bengal–Nicobar submarine fan sediments or coalified (Mustoe, 2018)
Summary
Coalified (Mustoe, 2018). We rule out charcoal because this would display crushing rather than compressional bending and plastic deformation in compaction, whereas coalified wood would require greater burial and thermal maturity (Mustoe, 2018). IODP Expedition 362 drilled offshore at two sites (U1480 and U1481) in August–October 2016 on the Indian oceanic plate subducting at the Sumatra seismogenic zone (Fig. 1). During coring at Site U1480, two adjacent cores of interbedded sediment gravity flow and hemipelagic siliciclastic sediment containing large pieces of fossilized wood were recovered at ∼ 840–860 m below the seafloor.
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