Friday Field Photo #176: Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2) in Deep-Sea Sediments
One of the drill sites from IODP Expedition 342 this past summer recovered sediments that spanned the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary (~93 Ma). This interval, known as Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2), is well studied from numerous stratigraphic sections around the world and interpreted to record an event of very low to no oxygen in parts of the global ocean.
There was a lot of excitement as the cores that spanned this interval were being split. One of my colleagues from the core description team, Chris Junium of Syracuse University, has done quite a bit of research on this event and is pointing out the rather obvious bed of gray to black organic-rich shale within a succession of carbonate-rich pelagic oozes. The film maker we had on board was there to capture the excitement (check out the short movies he made from the expedition here).
Happy Friday!
Clastic Detritus 
Hi Brian, interesting stuff, nothing beats the the drilling for experience of pure discovery and surprises. Question, were the core holes logged with wireline logging tools after the TD of each core hole?
Kim, unfortunately not. The loggers had some issues with their equipment at the first site of the expedition that couldn’t be resolved on-the-fly out there.
it’s very, very interesting that anoxic conditions were so widespread, eiter in deep water and along the shores also in this event. Thank you.