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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Sediment cores from the Cariaco Trench, VEnezuela

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6737566

The Cariaco Trench, located within the limits of the continental shelf off the Caribbean coast of Venezuela, is about 160 km long, 40 km wide, and lies 16-32 km offshore. Sill depth is about 150 m; maximum depth in the trench is about 1,400 m. Within the trench, waters deeper than 375 m are anoxic. During cruises in 1957 and 1958, R/V Atlantis collected over 20 sediment cores, mostly piston type of 3-10 m length, from the trench and its vicinity. The Holocene sediments from the euxinic zone of the trench are mostly grayish-olive and fine-grained; either laminated silt-clays or homogeneous silty clays, both types generally containing a paucity of benthic fauna. A lower zone of sediments, at least on the S. slopes, consists of yellowish-brown silty clays containing a fair representation of benthic fauna. These appear to have been deposited under normal marine conditions before the basin waters became anoxic (late Pleistocene).

Research Organization:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA (USA)
OSTI ID:
6737566
Report Number(s):
AD-618,089
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English