Abstract
Seven sediment cores were investigated from areas in the western Coral Sea where a thin sediment cover above acoustic basement, or above marked unconformities, was visible in reflection seismic records, implying low accumulation rates. Consequently in five of the cores Pliocene strata were reached in less than 4 meters depth subbottom. The remaining cores reached Pleistocene strata at similar shallow depths. Cores from the Queensland Plateau and the Coral Sea Abyssal Plain are composed of mainly calcareous nannofossil and foraminiferal oozes, indicating a calcareous biological primary production in the western Coral Sea at least since the Pliocene. The younger Quaternary sections of two cores from the northeastern slope of the Queensland Plateau show a high abundance of siliceous microfossils resulting from the influence of silica-rich seawater of the eastern Coral Sea. Sediments cored in the Moresby Canyon are terrigenous muds. The carbonate content of the Quaternary sediments depends strongly on the waterdepth and on the input of terrigenous material. The Quaternary calcium carbonate compensation depth of the western Coral Sea was estimated to be at 4600 m, which is close to that of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The sediments from the Moresby Canyon, the Coral Sea Abyssal Plain, and the northeastern slope of the Queensland Plateau have received their terrigenous components, mainly quartz, feldspar, chlorite and muscovite-illite from mainland New Guinea. The western slope of the Queensland Plateau and the western Coral Sea Abyssal Plain very likely have received terrigenous components also from mainland Australia as indicated by admixed kaolinite. The frequent fine-grained volcanic glass in the sediments probably was provided by drift-pumice rafts, which derived from volcanic eruptions in the southwestern Pacific region.
Published Version
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