ALBERT

Description: The lipids and kerogens of 15 sediment samples from Site 547 (ranging from Pleistocene to Early Jurassic/Triassic) and 4 from Site 545 (Cretaceous) have been analyzed. A strong terrestrial contribution of organic matter was found, and significant autochthonous inputs were also present, especially at Site 545. Both strongly reduced and highly oxidized sediments have been found in the Cenozoic and Jurassic samples of Site 547. On the contrary, all the Cretaceous sections of Sites 547 and 545 are anoxic. Sediments from anoxic paleoenvironments are immature and have a high content of sterenes, diasterenes, steradienes, hopenes, and ßß hopanes. Samples from oxic paleoenvironments are mainly mature and their content of hopenes and steriod structures is below the detection level. Nevertheless, their hopane distributions have the immature ßß homologs as the predominant molecular markers. For Site 545 the most abundant molecular markers are ring A monoaromatic steranes, and their presence is attributed to microbial and chemical transformations during early diagenesis.

Description: From 661 to 880 m beneath the seafloor at DSDP Sites 370 and 416 are Albian to Barremian claystone with some limestone, sandstone, and siltstone. Compressional-wave velocities ranged from 1.70 to 4.37 km/s, with an average in situ vertical velocity of 1.93 km/s. From 880 to 1430 m are Hauterivian to Valanginian turbidites of alternating graded calcareous and quartzose cycles from siltstone or fine sandstone to mudstone. Compressional-wave velocities range from 1.80 to 4.96 km/s with an average in situ velocity of 2.61 km/s. From 1430 to 1624 m are early Valanginian to Tithonian (Kimmeridgian?) turbidites, with alternating quartzose siltstone grading to mudstone cycles with hard micritic limestone and calcarenite (calciturbidites). Compressional-wave velocities range from 2.26 to 5.7 km/s, with an average in situ vertical velocity of 3.25 km/s. Acoustic anisotropy is 0 to 30% faster parallel to bedding in Cretaceous to Tithonian sandstone-siltstone turbidites in mudstone and minor limestone from 661 to 1624 m below the seafloor. Between 2.0(?) km/s and 4.2(?) km/s, anisotropy becomes particularly significant (below 1178 m), where the anisotropy is about + 0.4 km/s or greater. The mudstone, softer sandstone, and softer siltstone tend to have velocities around 2.0 to 2.5 km/s; the cemented sandstone and limestone cluster around 2.5 km/s to 4.2 km/s; thus the relative percentage anisotropy is greater for lower-velocity lithologies. Above 4.2(?) km/s, the well-cemented sandstone and limestone tend to have a smaller (less than + 0.4 km/s) absolute anisotropy, and many samples are nearly isotropic. These physical property data are separated into depth plots for (1) mudstone, (2) siltstone (3) sandstone, (4) marlstone, and (5) limestone. The mudstone's porosity and wet-bulk density curves versus depth are slightly higher and lower, respectively, than similar porosity and wet-bulk density curves summarized in Hamilton (1976). These differences could be some combination of (1) differences in laboratory methods; (2) age, lithologic, and cementation differences; or (3) overconsolidation created by a geological sequence which has been eroded away. If the average in situ vertical velocities calculated by Boyce (1980b) for Hole 416A are correct, then the 1.43-s (round-trip) reflector (blue) discussed by Lancelot and Winterer (1980) and Lancelot, Winterer et al. (1980b), would correlate to about 1500 m in Hole 416A, and not below 1624 m as suggested by Lancelot and Winterer. There appears to be a significant change in the acoustic character at or around that depth (1500 m) to a more lithified, calcareous, and cemented lithology. This does not prove Lancelot and Winterer (1980) and Lancelot, Winterer et al. (1980b) to be incorrect, but only suggests another possible interpretation.

Description: Gneissic granodiorite was recovered by drilling at the base of the Mazagan escarpment, 100 km west of the Casablanca, Morocco, at 4000 m water depth. Coarse, predeformative muscovite yielded dates of -515 Ma, fine-grained muscovite of -455 Ma, biotite -360 and 335 Ma, and feldspar -315 Ma. These dates are tentatively correlated with the microscopic results. We assume a minimum age of middle Cambrian for the granodiorite, an Ordovician deformation and mylonitization, and a Late Carboniferous overprint under upper greenschist facies conditions.