Clay Mineralogy of the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Hole 653A, Western Tyrrhenian Sea (ODP Leg 107)

Abstract

X-ray diffraction analyses were performed on 139 samples from the marine Pliocene and Pleistocene of ODP Hole 653A in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The quantitative clay mineral record, calibrated to the numerical time scale, is indicative of a succession of environmental changes on the peri-Tyrrhenian continents. A large sedimentary supply of recycled material is recognized in the earliest Pliocene. From 4.6 to 3.4 Ma the climate may have become progressively more arid, but the clay mineral signal might also indicate increasing erosion due to tectonic uplift of the source areas. At about 1.6 Ma accelerated uplift/emergence can be recognized, followed by a shift toward a cooler climate in the early Pleistocene. Widespread volcanic activity on the Tyrrhenian side of the Apennines, starting at about 1.0 Ma, might be recognizable in the smectite pattern.

Clay Sedimentology

“…Its statistical clay-mineral study suggests the existence of more non climatic paleoenvironmental changes than those previously recorded (de Visser and Chamley 1989). Its statistical clay-mineral study suggests the existence of more non climatic paleoenvironmental changes than those previously recorded (de Visser and Chamley 1989).…”

Space–time variability of denudation rates at the catchment and hillslope scales on the Tyrrhenian side of Central Italy

“…X-ray diffraction analyses performed on samples from the marine Pliocene and Pleistocene sediments of ODP Hole 653A in the Tyrrhenian Sea indicated an acceleration of the uplift/emergence of the study areas at about 1.6 Ma B.P. (de Visser and Chamley, 1990). It is likely that, as a consequence, the landscape has been strongly dissected by fluvial deepening.…”

Chemical weathering and provenance evolution of Holocene–Recent sediments from the Western Indus Shelf, Northern Arabian Sea inferred from physical and mineralogical properties

“…An additional property that has been used in clay mineral studies is the crystallinity index of illite, which is thought to be sensitive to alteration and thus to climate change (Chamley, 1989;de Visser and Chamley, 1990;Pandarinath, 2009). Low illite crystallinity is associated with greater chemical weathering (Pandarinath, 2009) or lower burial diagenesis (Kisch, 1983).…”