This data were collected as part of the Ocean Drilling Program. All data were collected on Leg 119. The cruise for Leg 119 began at Port Louis Harbor, Mauritius, and finished at the Port of Fremantle, Australia. The objective was to complete a transect, along with Leg 120, to study the Late Cretaceous to Holocene palaeoclimatic history of East Antarctic, tectonic history of the Kerguelen Plateau, and the late Mesozoic rifting history of the Indian plate from East Antarctica. Samples are sediments. Good calibration standards for sediments not available. More information can be obtained from the Ocean Drilling Program website. The data obtained from the drilling is available on the Ocean Drilling Program website (see Download Paleontology Data). From the abstract of one of the papers: The timing and nature of the initiation of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is the subject of considerable discussion. Before Leg 119, the earliest known unequivocal Cenozoic glacial sediments were discovered in a Lower Oligocene sequence from the Ross Sea. Quartz grains of Eocene age from the Subantarctic Pacific Ocean were inferred from their grain texture to be ice-rafted. Previous results obtained by Leg 113 in the Weddell Sea indicate that glaciation at sea level first occurred during the late early Oligocene on East Antarctica and during the late Miocene on western Antarctica. Our new results show that glaciation is present during the earliest Oligocene and possibly the late Miocene.

This data were collected as part of the Ocean Drilling Program. All data were collected on Leg 119. The cruise for Leg 119 began at Port Louis Harbor, Mauritius, and finished at the Port of Fremantle, Australia. The objective was to complete a transect, along with Leg 120, to study the Late Cretaceous to Holocene palaeoclimatic history of East Antarctic, tectonic history of the Kerguelen Plateau, and the late Mesozoic rifting history of the Indian plate from East Antarctica. Samples are sediments. Good calibration standards for sediments not available. More information can be obtained from the Ocean Drilling Program website. The data obtained from the drilling is available on the Ocean Drilling Program website (see Download Paleontology Data). From the abstract of one of the papers: During Leg 119 of the Ocean Drilling Program, between December 1987 and February 1988, six holes were drilled in the Kerguelen Plateau, southern Indian Ocean, and five in Prydz Bay at the mouth of the Amery Ice Shelf, on the East Antarctic continental shelf. The Prydz Bay holes, reported here, form a transect from the inner shelf to the continental slope, recording a prograding sequence of possible Late Palaeozoic to Eocene to Quaternary glacially dominated sediments. This extends the known onset of large-scale glaciation of Antarctica back to about 36-40 million years ago, the sedimentary record suggesting that a fully developed East Antarctic Ice Sheet reached the coast at Prydz Bay at this time, and was more extensive than the present sheet. Subsequent glacial history is complex, with the bulk of sedimentation in the outer shelf taking place close to the grounding line of an extended Amery Ice Shelf. However, breaks in the record and intervals of no recovery may hide evidence of periods of glacial retreat.

The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) has been the largest cooperative marine geology program in history. The Australian Antarctic Division contributed to the Australian ODP budget while ODP was drilling in Antarctic or sub-Antarctic waters. Although initially related to ODP Leg 120 on Kerguelen Plateau (1988), the spirit of this project can also extend to Leg 188 (2000). These involvements have been primarily on foraminifera from the Cretaceous and Neogene but have also contributed to understanding of the sediments and changes of environment with time. A lot has been published and further papers are in press or in preparation. Leg 183 involvement was invited and turned down but Pat Quilty was then asked to present one paper on Late Cretaceous benthic foraminifera (published) and to act as external editor for the volume. This work is now almost final and is available on the WWW. Some sample data are available for download at the url below. For complete datasets, see the ODP website. The fields in this dataset are: Sample Accessory Depth (metres below surface) Species Planktonic percentage Barren