Obtaining a high-latitude Southern Hemisphere Cretaceous record: Naturaliste Plateau and Mentelle Basin Virtual Site Survey

了解极地和热带之间气候变化的机制、反馈和时间关系，对于重建过去的快速气候变化，从而改善对未来的预测，具有至关重要的意义。越来越多的科学证据表明，白垩纪中期的超级温室气候可能被一系列短暂的冰川所中断。这样的事件就会提供这样的数据。然而，南半球高纬度海洋显然缺乏钻探岩心，那里可能存在冰川的证据将得到最好的保存。在高纬度南半球钻探白垩纪的唯一另一个现有的IODP提议主要是为了调查一个受限的盆地，不会提供必要的公开海洋信息来了解对全球气候的影响。在这项提案中，我们将详细研究西澳大利亚近海Naturaliste高原和Mentelle盆地的现有地震数据，这些数据在白垩纪期间暴露在澳大利亚/南极洲大陆边缘的开阔洋流中。这项工作的结果将创建纳图拉里斯特高原和门特尔盆地地质演化的详细地图，特别是白垩纪时期。这些地图将被用来确定白垩纪沉积物钻探的最佳地点，并将成为IODP全面提案的基础。该项目的成果还将用于支持向国际地球科学委员会提出的一项建议，即在珀斯盆地南部钻探时间相当(且更深)的浅海和陆相层序，从而提供陆地-盆地横断面和有助于我们理解深部海洋-大气相互作用的数据。

Understanding the mechanisms, feedbacks and time relationships that link climate dynamics between the polar regions and the tropics is of fundamental importance for reconstructing rapid climate change in the past, and hence improving predictions for the future. There is growing scientific evidence that the mid-Cretaceous super-greenhouse climate may have been interrupted by a series of short-lived glaciations. Such events would provide just this kind of data. However, there is a clear lack of drill core from high-latitude Southern Hemisphere oceans, where evidence of these possible glaciations will be best preserved. The only other exisiting IODP proposal to drill the Cretaceous in the high-latitude Southern Hemisphere is primarily structured to investigate a restricted basin and will not provide the required open ocean information necessary to understand effects on global climate. In this proposal we will examine in detail the existing seismic data from the Naturaliste Plateau and Mentelle Basin offshore Western Australia which, during the Cretaceous, was exposed to open ocean circulation on the Australia/Antarctica continental margin. The results of this work will create detailed maps of the geological evolution of the Naturaliste Plateau and Mentelle Basin, with particular emphasis on the Cretaceous interval. These maps will be used to determine the optimal site for drilling Cretaceous sediments and will form the basis for an IODP Full Proposal. The results from this project will also be used to support a proposal to the ICDP to drill a time-equivalent (and deeper) shallow marine and continental sequence in the southern Perth Basin, thus providing a land-basin transect and data contributing to our understanding of deep-time ocean-atmosphere interactions.