Deep-water sedimentary sequences of mid-Cretaceous age, rich in organic carbon, have been recovered at many DSDP sites in the Atlantic Ocean. Most of these sequences have a marked cyclicity in amount of organic carbon resulting in interbedded multicolored shale, marlstone, and (or) limestone that have cycle periods of 20,000 to 100,000 years and average 40,000 to 50,000 years. These cycles may be related to some climatic control on influx of terrigenous organic matter and sediment, rates of upwelling and sea-surface production of organic matter, and preservation of organic matter related to deeper-water dissolved oxygen concentration. These variations in supply of organic matter had pronounced effects on the potential of the sediment for subsequent diagenetic changes and geochemical partitioning in adjacent beds.Many trace elements are enriched in organic-carbon-rich lithologies relative to interbedded organic-carbon-poor lithologies. Elements that are most commonly enriched are Cr, Ni, V, Cu, Zn, and Mo. The association of high traceelement concentrations with organic matter may be the result of concentration of these elements by organisms or by chemical sorption and precipitation processes under anoxic conditions. Detailed trace-element profiles from organiccarbon-rich strata at Site 530 suggest that there may be differential mobility of trace elements, with diffusion of some elements over distances of at least tens of meters. The sequence of trace-element mobility, from highest to lowest, is approximately Ba, Mn, Pb, Ni, Co, Cr, Cu, Zn, V, Cd, and Mo. Slowly deposited, oxidized clays directly overlying some black shale sequences are enriched in some metals, particularly Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu, relative to normal pelagic clays, and this enrichment may be the result of upward migration of metals in pore waters during compaction or diffusion from the underlying black shale.Most depositional models that have been used to explain the accumulation of the organic-carbon-rich strata imply that reducing conditions in the sediments (and therefore the increased degree of preservation of organic matter) were the result of anoxic or near-anoxic conditions in oceanic bottom waters, or in a midwater oxygen-minimum zone. Evidence from several DSDP sites in the Atlantic, however, indicate that some of these middle Cretaceous "black shale" beds may be the result of variations in rate of supply of organic matter that produced anoxia or near-anoxia within midwater oxygen-minimum zones and possibly, under extreme conditions, throughout much of the bottomwater mass. Although bottom-water anoxia may have occurred during periods of organic-carbon-rich strata, it was not necessarily the only cause for accumulation of these strata. The main reason for the accumulation of organic-carbonrich strata was an increase in the relative amount of organic debris being deposited. Some of this organic debris was derived from continental-margin areas of increased production, accumulation, and preservation of organic matter from marine, terrest...

Sediment samples collected at DSDP Leg 96 Mississippi Fan Sites 615, 616, 620, 621, and 623, Orca Basin Site 618, and Pigmy Basin Site 619 were analyzed for 22 major, minor, and trace elements. This study was undertaken to document the downhole variability in inorganic geochemistry between sites. The mineralogy of the clays, including those from Sites 614, 617, and 622 on the fan, was determined by X-ray diffraction to define the principal clay minerals present at the sites, examine any downhole trends in clay mineralogy, and aid in the interpretation of the geochemical signature of the sediments. Clay mineral composition at all the sites is smectite:illite:chlorite:kaolinite in the approximate percentage ratio 50:20:20:10. Geochemical results indicate only slight variation between and within the sites, with the exception of a discrete unit of carbonates that occurs near the bottom of Site 615. Variation in the major, minor, and trace element composition can be explained by a change in the relative abundance of quartz, clay minerals, and carbonates.

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