1989 Articles

The Bengal Fan: Some Preliminary Results from ODP Drilling

Stow, Dorrik; Cochran, James R.

Three deep holes, with a maximum penetration of 960 m below Sea floor, were drilled into the distal Bengal Fan just south of the equator during ODP Leg 116. The entire section recovered is dominated by sandy silt and mud turbidites derived from the Ganges Delta and from the continental margin of the western Bay of Bengal, interbedded with thin pelagic clays and with biogenic turbidites probably from a local sea mount source. The effects of Himalayan uplift, sea level fluctuations, local tectonics, and fan channel/lobe processes have closely interacted to produce the observed sedimentary record of the past 17 million years since the early Miocene.