Miocene stable isotope stratigraphy of ODP Hole 120-747A

We correlated Miocene d18O increases at Ocean Drilling Program Site 747 with d18O increases previously identified at North Atlantic Deep Sea Drilling Project Sites 563 and 608. The d18O increases have been directly tied to the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale (GPTS) at Site 563 and 608, and thus our correlations at Site 747 provide a second-order correlation to the GPTS. Comparison of the oxygen isotope record at Site 747 with records at Sites 563 and 608 indicates that three as-yet-undescribed global Miocene d18O increases may be recognized and used to define stable isotope zones. The d18O maxima associated with the bases of Zones Mila, Milb, and Mi7 have magnetochronologic age estimates of 21.8, 18.3, and 8.5 Ma, respectively. […]