Petrology of ODP Leg 210 and Leg 173, and DSDP Leg 47 sites

Sand detrital modes of Albian-Eocene clastic gravity-flow deposits cored and recovered at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1276 reflect the postrift geologic evolution of the Newfoundland passive continental margin. Cretaceous sandstone compositions (average: Q57F23L20; Ls%Lsc = 35; total%bioclasts = 3) are consistent with a source on Grand Banks such as Avalon Uplift. Their relatively low potassium feldspar (Qm71K8P21) contents distinguish them from Iberian sandstones and appear to preclude an easterly source during the early history of the ocean basin. Isolated volcaniclastic input near the Paleocene/Eocene boundary (~60 Ma) at Site 1276 is also present in Iberian samples of this age, suggesting that magmatism was widespread across the North Atlantic during this time frame; the source(s) of this volcanic debris remains equivocal. In the Eocene, the development of carbonate bank facies on the shelf marks a profound compositional change to calcareous grainstones (average: Q27F11L62; Ls%Lsc = 82; total%bioclasts = 55) in basinal gravity-flow deposits at Site 1276. This calcareous petrofacies is present on the Iberian margin and in the Pyrenees, suggesting that it was a regional event. The production and downslope redistribution of carbonate debris, including bioclastic and lithic fragments, was likely eustatically controlled.
The Newfoundland (Site 1276 and Jeanne d'Arc Basin) sandstones are mainly quartzolithic. Their composition and the contrast in composition between them and more quartzofeldspathic sandstones from the Iberian margin are likely a product of rifting along a Paleozoic suture zone separating distinct basement terranes. This prerift geologic setting contrasts with that of rifts developed within other cratonic settings with variable amounts of synrift volcanism. When synthesized, the spectrum of synrift and postrift sand compositions produces a general model of passive margin (rift-to-drift) sandstone provenance.