Stable carbon and oxygenisotope record of bulk sediment of ODP Hole 122-762C

Carbon isotope measurements were made on bulk sediments from the Paleogene calcareous sequence recovered at Ocean Drilling Program Site 762 (Hole 762C) on the central Exmouth Plateau, eastern Indian Ocean. The very positive d13C values that characterize the early/late Paleocene boundary and the very rapid trend toward lighter values in the latest Paleocene, as observed at other sites worldwide, are clearly present in the record from Hole 762C, as is the short excursion to extremely light values close to the Paleocene/Eocene boundary. The highest values in the upper Paleocene maximum at Site 762 are close to those at mid-latitude South Atlantic sites on Walvis Ridge, but slightly lower than those from the high latitude Sites 689 and 690 (65 infinity S; Maud Rise, Weddell Sea). These d13C events will be of value in long-distance stratigraphic correlations; especially the short, but extreme excursion at the end of the Paleocene may be useful in clearing up the stratigraphic correlation problems for that interval. Site 762 values for the upper Eocene resemble the pattern at Walvis Ridge more closely than do the values for Sites 689 and 690 (Maud Rise); the latter showed a positive excursion in that interval. The bulk carbon isotopic record seems to be more similar between low- and mid-latitude sites, even in different ocean basins, than between low and high latitudes.