Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project - Volume 35

This volume covers Leg 35 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel Glomar Challenger. Leg 35 was the third DSDP cruise to undertake drilling in Antarctic waters and the first in the Southeast Pacific Basin; the others were Legs 28 and 29 in the Southwest Pacific which took place during the austral summer of 1972/1973. Glomar Challenger departed Callao, Peru, on 13 February 1974. The cruise ended on 30 March 1974 at Ushuaia, Argentina. Drilling operations were carried out at four sites in water depths between 3745 and 5026 meters. Two sites (322 and 323) lie on the Bellingshausen Abyssal Plain, and two (324 and 325) lie on the continental rise of Antarctica. A single hole was drilled at each site. The sites drilled on Leg 35 were selected to study a number of particular regional problems as well as to add to general knowledge of the area. Some specific objectives of the cruise and reasons for selecting the sites follow: 1) To study the nature and age of oceanic basement in an attempt to learn more about the pre-breakup configurations of Gondwanaland. 2) To determine deep and surface patterns of paleocirculation which cause changes of productivity patterns and sedimentation events that in turn determine regional acoustic stratigraphy. 3) To understand the history of continental glaciation of Antarctica. 4) To investigate the geochemistry of pore waters and related sediments in order to understand postdepositional diagenetic processes in sediments, particularly as related to the alteration of underlying basalts. 5) To recover sediments containing high-latitude fossil forms to establish an Antarctic biostratigraphic and paleogeographic framework.