Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project - Volume 29

This volume covers Leg 29 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel Glomar Challenger. Leg 29, the second Deep Sea Drilling expedition in the Antarctic, began 2 March 1973 when Glomar Challenger sailed from Lyttleton, New Zealand, and ended 18 April in Wellington, New Zealand. On this leg 16 holes were drilled at 10 sites in water from 1068 to 4746 meters deep at latitudes between 40°S and 57°S, south of New Zealand and Australia, and in the Tasman Sea. The site locations span the northern Antarctic, Subantarctic, and cool subtropical (temperate) watermasses. With the general absence of land masses at these latitudes, Leg 29 provided the first opportunity to obtain Cenozoic sedimentary sections in subantarctic areas. The main geological goals on the leg included: (1) determining the history of the separation and relative movement of Australia, Antarctica, and New Zealand; (2) determining the nature of basement rock in the magnetic quiet zone adjacent to Australia; (3) determining the history of development of the circum-Antarctic current and associated bottom-water history, resulting from the northward drifting of Australia from Antarctica and Antarctic glacial history; (4) determining the paleoclimatic and paleoglacial history of the Antarctic area; (5) developing a biostratigraphic zonation in northern Antarctic and subantarctic latitudes for foraminifera, Radiolaria, calcareous nannofossils, diatoms, and other groups; and (6) determining the history of biogenic productivity associated with the Antarctic Convergence and in subantarctic and cool sub-tropical water masses.