Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361 – 381

www.elsevier.com/locate/sedgeo

Bengal Fan sediment transport activity and

response to climate forcing inferred from
sediment physical properties
M.E. Weber a,*, M. Wiedicke-Hombach b, H.R. Kudrass b, H. Erlenkeuser c
a
Ocean Mapping Group, Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B.,
P.O. Box 4400, Canada E3B 5A3
b
Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, Stilleweg 2, D-30655 Hannover, Germany
c
Leibniz-Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Isotope Research, Leibnizstrasse 19, D-24118 Kiel, Germany
Received 6 July 2000; received in revised form 8 February 2001; accepted 13 March 2002

Abstract

We obtained sediment physical properties and geochemical data from 47 piston and gravity cores located in the Bay of
Bengal, to study the complex history of the Late Pleistocene run-off from the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers and its
imprint on the Bengal Fan. Grain-size parameters were predicted from core logs of density and velocity to infer sediment
transport energy and to distinguish different environments along the 3000-km-long transport path from the delta platform to
the lower fan. On the shelf, 27 cores indicate rapidly prograding delta foresets today that contain primarily mud, whereas
outer shelf sediment has 25% higher silt contents, indicative of stronger and more stable transport regime, which prevent
deposition and expose a Late Pleistocene relic surface. Deposition is currently directed towards the shelf canyon ‘Swatch of
No Ground’, where turbidites are released to the only channel – levee system that is active on the fan during the Holocene.
Active growth of the channel – levee system occurred throughout sea-level rise and highstand with a distinct growth phase at
the end of the Younger Dryas. Coarse-grained material bypasses the upper fan and upper parts of the middle fan, where
particle flow is enhanced as a result of flow-restriction in well-defined channels. Sandier material is deposited mainly as
sheet-flow deposits on turbidite-dominated plains at the lower fan. The currently most active part of the fan with 10 – 40-cm-
thick turbidites is documented for the central channel including inner levees (e.g., site 40). Site 47 from the lower fan far to
the east of the active channel – levee system indicates the end of turbidite sedimentation at 300 ka for that location. That
time corresponds to the sea-level lowering during late isotopic stage 9 when sediment supply to the fan increased and led to
channel avulsion farther upstream, probably indicating a close relation of climate variability and fan activity. Pelagic deep-
sea sites 22 and 28 contain a 630-kyear record of climate response to orbital forcing with dominant 21- and 41-kyear cycles
for carbonate and magnetic susceptibility, respectively, pointing to teleconnections of low-latitude monsoonal forcing on the
precession band to high-latitude obliquity forcing. Upper slope sites 115, 124, and 126 contain a record of the response to
high-frequency climate change in the Dansgaard – Oeschger bands during the last glacial cycle with shared frequencies
between 0.75 and 2.5 kyear. Correlation of highs in Bengal Fan physical properties to lows in the y18O record of the GISP2
ice-core suggests that times of greater sediment transport energy in the Bay of Bengal are associated with cooler air

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-506-453-4684; fax: +1-506-453-4943.
E-mail address: mweber@unb.ca (M.E. Weber).

0037-0738/02/$ - see front matter D 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

PII: S 0 0 3 7 - 0 7 3 8 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 8 7 - 2
362 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381
temperatures over Greenland. Teleconnections were probably established through moisture and other greenhouse-gas forcing
that could have been initiated by instabilities in the methane hydrate reservoir in the oceans.
D 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.
Keywords: Sediment physical properties; Density; Bengal Fan; Climate
1. Introduction
With almost 3000-km length and up to 1000-km
width, the Bengal Fan is the largest fan system in the
world (Curray and Moore, 1971). It belongs to the
group of mud-rich fans like the Amazon, Mississippi,
and Indus, all of which have all been formed by long-
term input of riverine sediment. The development of
the Bengal Fan started during the Early Eocene
(Curray, 1994) and is related to the uplift of the
Himalayas after the collision of India and Asia. The
rate of sediment supply by the Ganges and Brahma-
putra rivers is the highest of any river (Kolla and
Coumes, 1984). Sediment deposits on both shelf and
slope have been modulated by glacio-eustatic sea-
level fluctuations, climatic change, and tectonic activ-
ity (Flood et al., 1995). Although tectonic processes
mainly control the long-term changes in the flux of
riverine sediments (>105 year; e.g., Schumm and Rea,
1995), climate change largely controls the shorter-
time scales (e.g., Mulder and Syvitski, 1996).
On the shelf, part of the sediment load is deposited
in prograding foresets of the present-day delta. How-
ever, a significant portion of sediment bypasses the
shelf (Kuehl et al., 1989) and is delivered to the
‘Swatch of No Ground’, which is a submarine canyon
that incised deeply into the shelf off Bangladesh. The
‘Swatch of No Ground’ connects the present shelf
depocenter to a single, currently active channel – levee
system that shows apparently no bifurcation over its
2500-km length on the fan (Curray and Moore, 1974;
Weber et al., 1997b) (Fig. 1). Levees are thought to
form channel walls by overspilling and flow-stripping
of turbidity currents (Piper and Normark, 1983).
The purpose of this study is to complement previous
studies of our group that addressed issues of both shelf
and fan sedimentation during the Late Pleistocene
(e.g., Weber et al., 1997a,b; Hübscher et al., 1997;
Michels et al., 1998; Kudrass et al., 1998; Wiedicke et
al., 1999). Here, results from 47 sediment sites are put
in a common framework of sediment physical proper-
ties in order to distinguish and characterize the entire
transport and sedimentation path from the river mouth
to the deep sea. Sediment physical properties will also
be used to unravel the response to climate forcing on
both orbital and sub-orbital time scales and to put the
sedimentological findings into a climatic context.
2. Rationale of site selection
Sediment cores of this study originate from a
south – north transect in the Bay of Bengal. Core
locations are given in Figs. 1 and 2 for the fan and
the shelf, respectively. Lithology of selected sediment
cores is displayed in Fig. 3. Coring concentrated on
both the central part of the fan along the currently
active channel – levee system with local deviations
towards east and west, and on the shelf. Fan sites
have been studied for the response of sea-level rise to
turbidity current activity (Weber et al., 1997b). Shelf
sites were retrieved in order to (i) better understand
the mechanisms of sediment supply from land (the
Ganges– Brahmputra river systems) and the distribu-
tion of sediment on the prograding delta and outer
shelf (see Michels et al., 1998); (ii) to unravel the
storm history by studying the impact of past cyclones
on the sedimentary record (see Kudrass et al., 1998);
and (iii) to learn more about Pleistocene relic sedi-
ments at the outer shelf (Wiedicke et al., 1999).
Here, we study the prograding delta foresets along
two north – south oriented core transects (sites 103,
105, and 107 to the west; and 87 through 82 to the
east; Fig. 2). Whether or not there is a significant
present-day sediment transport to the southeast is
addressed by a west– east transect on the prograding
delta foreset (sites 70, 69, 68, 71, and 72). Site 96 is a
key site to study the sediment transport to the fan via
the shelf canyon ‘Swatch of No Ground’. Two core
transects (sites 114 through 111 as part of the western
 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381 363

Fig. 1. Map of the Bengal Fan with coring sites used in this study. Cores are from cruise SO-93 (circles), cruise SO-51 (squares), Lamont
Doherty Earth Observatory (triangles), and DSDP/ODP (diamonds). Dark shading indicates turbiditic Holocene material; light shading indicates
pelagic Holocene sediment. Box in the upper right marks location of Fig. 2. Water depth (in m) is given in italics (source GEBCO, 1997).
364 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381

Fig. 2. Map of the Bengal Shelf with coring sites from cruise SO-93 along three transects. Shelf bathymetry is modified from Michels et al.
(1998); deepwater bathymetry is from GEBCO (1997). Water depth (in m) in given in italics. Doted lines refer to position of three core transects.

transect, and sites 77 through 81 as part of the eastern
transect) address the question: to what extent are
sediments deposited on the outer shelf since the last
sea-level rise?
The rationale for choosing core locations on the fan
can be divided into four main categories (Fig. 3). First,
eight sites targeted different sedimentary environments
of the main active sediment supply channel along the
middle to lower fan areas: site 27 sampled an inactive
turbiditic channel infill; sites 40 and 54 sampled one of
the younger levees within the main channel, hereafter
referred to as inner levees; sites 39 and 45 sampled the
crest of the main levee; sites 32, 46, and 51 sampled the
lateral flanks of the main levee. Second, sites 9, 19, 24,
and 29 sampled the turbidite-dominated plains distal
from well-defined feeding channels in the lower fan
area. Third, sites 117 through 120 provide a transect
perpendicular to the major channel – levee system in
the upper midfan area. Fourth, six sites were targeted to
recover hemipelagic to pelagic records in order to yield
insight into the response to climate forcing: site 1 as a
pelagic reference site off Sri Lanka that is not influ-
enced by the Bengal Fan (Fig. 3); sites 22 and 28 from
flanks of small seamounts in the lower fan area for the
response to orbital forcing in the Milankovitch fre-
quency band; and sites 115, 124, and 126 from the
upper fan for the response to high-frequency sub-
Milankovitch climate forcing.
3. Methods
Samples and data for this study were collected in
February 1994 during three legs of cruise 93 with RV
Sonne (SO-93) by the Federal Institute for Geoscien-
ces and Natural Resources (BGR). All data reported
 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381
Fig. 3. Lithology of selected sediment cores (cruise SO-93) from the lower fan (top), the middle and upper fan (lower left), and the shelf (lower right). For location of sites see Figs. 1
and 2. Note the occurrence of the Toba Ash (*; 75 ka according to Ninkovitch et al., 1978 and Chesner et al., 1991) at sites 1, 9, 22, 28, and 29.

365
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here are available at the PANGAEA Network for
Geological and Environmental Data hosted by the
Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine
Research (http://www.pangaea.de/home/mweber/).
All cores were retrieved with a piston corer or a
gravity corer and logged onboard for physical and
optical sediment properties after temperature equili-
bration.
Nondestructive measurements of sediment physical
properties have been carried out at 47 sites (358-m
total core length; 2-cm measuring increment; 17,050
measurements) using a Multi-Sensor Core Logger
(MSCL; GEOTEK, UK) in order to distinguish sedi-
mentary environments and to assign sediment facies.
This system provides three sensors: a pair of compres-
sional wave transducers to determine the velocity of
compressional waves in the core (p-wave velocity;
hereafter referred to as velocity); a gamma-ray source
and detector for measuring the attenuation of gamma-
rays through the core (wet-bulk density; hereafter
referred to as density); and a magnetic susceptibility
sensor loop to determine the amount of magnetic
material present in the sediment. Densities were
calculated using varying attenuation coefficients and
an iteration procedure to account for errors in deter-
mination described by Moran (1993). Details about
calibration and data processing are described in Weber
et al. (1997a).
Other nondestructive measurements were made for
optical properties on selected cores at 5-cm incre-
ments, using a Minolta Chromatometer CR-200
(2,650 measurements in total) in order to provide a
proxy record for carbonate content. This digital instru-
ment provides the three color values L – a– b for each
measurement: L is the black-white color component
(lightness or gray scale) discussed here, a is the red-
green component, and b is the yellow-blue component
(values are dimensionless and maximum range is 0 to
100, 60 to 60, and 60 to 60, respectively). In
order to avoid damage of the sensor which has to be
placed manually on the sediment, we covered the
surface of half-cut sediment cores with a very thin
transparent plastic sheet. Color was then measured
over a circle of 1 cm in diameter. Duplicate measure-
ments indicated excellent reproducibility (error is
V 0.2%).
Bathymetric data were collected using a Hydro-
sweep swath sonar system (for methodology see Grant
and Schreiber, 1990). For stratigraphic purposes,
stable oxygen isotopes of planktonic foraminifera
species Globigerinoides ruber and benthic species
Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi were measured with a mass
spectrometer. Grain size was analyzed by traditional
sieving and pipette methods (for details see Weber et
al., 1997a) and grain-size parameters were calculated
according to Folk and Ward (1957). Carbonate was
measured using a pressure-sensitive method following
Klosa (1994).
4. Sediment density and velocity as facies
indicators
The fine-grained ‘mud’ turbidites that are typical
for the Bengal Fan show less distinctive features than
their sandy counterparts, which were apparently more
abundant in the ancient record (Piper and Deptuck,
1997). Therefore, we use high-resolution records of
sediment physical properties that provide a detailed
insight into facies variation, to distinguish different
environments along the transport path.
On a global scale, the relation between density and
velocity is one of the most important indirect facies
indicators for unconsolidated marine sediment (e.g.,
Hamilton, 1970, 1971; Mienert et al., 1988; Mayer,
1991; Weber et al., 1997a; Weber, 1998). In cores
containing predominantly terrigenous material, den-
sity increases with velocity (Wood, 1941). The rela-
tionship is primarily a function of grain-size distri-
bution at relatively high and stable grain densities of
2.5 – 2.7 g/cm3 (Weber et al., 1997a) that can be
observed in sediment from most continental margins.
High density ( z 2.0 g/cm 3 ) and high velocity
( z 1600 m/s) values occur in coarse-grained sandy
to gravely sediments (Holler, 1985), where porosity
and water content are low. In addition, velocity is
higher in coarse-grained sediment because of their
grain-to-grain contact. Low density ( V 1.6 g/cm3) and
low velocity ( V 1520 m/s) values occur in fine-
grained clayey to muddy terrigenous sediment, where
porosity and water content are higher.
For unconsolidated biogenic sediment, e.g., from
the Southern Atlantic opal belt (Weber et al., 1997a)
or the equatorial Pacific carbonate belt (Weber, 1998),
density decreases with increasing velocity. This rela-
tionship depends on the ratio of biogenic carbonate
 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381
and opal. Velocity is high (density is low) in opal-rich
sediments because grain density is low (2.2 –2.4 g/
cm3) and intraporosity and rigidity of siliceous skel-
etons are high (e.g., Schön, 1996). Conversely, veloc-
ity is low (density is high) in carbonate-rich sediments
because grain density is high (2.5 – 2.8 g/cm3), and
intraporosity and shear resistance of carbonate skel-
etons are relatively low. Hemipelagic sediment shows
neither a clear positive nor a clear negative relation of
velocity and density because it consists primarily of
terrigenous material with minor contents of biogenic
components.
The globally trough-shaped velocity versus density
curve (Weber, 1998) has a minimum velocity of
approximately 1470 m/s, where density ranges from
1.35 to 1.55 g/cm3. In biogenic settings, velocity
increases up to 1530 m/s at very low densities of
approximately 1.1 g/cm3. In terrigenous settings,
velocity and density may increase up to approximately
1800 m/s and 2.8 g/cm3, respectively, depending on
the grain size. Values are absolute on a global scale
and thus lithology can be derived indirectly from
almost any sediment environment before sediment
cores are opened for sampling and further research.
Thus, from core logging the biogenic and terrigenous
end members of the velocity versus density relation
allow the quantitative assessment of carbonate and
opal contents for biogenic environments (Weber,
1998), and the calculation of grain-size distribution
for terrigenous environments (Weber et al., 1997a).
5. Grain size prediction
Grain-size measurements reveal that Bengal shelf
and fan sediment usually shows graded bedding with
a coarse silty lag fining-upward to mud (see also
Weber et al., 1997a). Fining-upward beds consist
predominantly of silt (up to 98%), which is concen-
trated in the 63– 20 Am fraction (up to 86%) and
which has sorting values of approximately 1.4 A units
(moderately well sorted according to Folk and Ward
(1957)). Only a few beds on the outer shelf and lower
fan have sand contents up to 15% (Fig. 3). Clay
contents are low at the base of the fining-upward beds
( V 5%) and high within muddy sediment (up to 50%).
Thus, Bengal Fan sediment is generally fine-grained
with silt as the ‘coarsest’ size. Fining-upward beds do
367
not distinguish on the shelf and the slope, where they
are related storm events and turbidites, respectively.
Based on the velocity – density relationship for
terrigenous sediments, Weber et al. (1997a) developed
a method to predict clay and silt/sand contents quan-
titatively from acoustic impedance logs that were
obtained by multiplying density by velocity (for
theoretical explanations see above). The correlation
coefficient r2 is 0.96, i.e., 96% of the variation in clay
and silt/sand content can be explained by variation in
the impedance log. Thus, the method provides a rapid
and relatively precise method to estimate sediment
budgets. The main boundary conditions for the grain
size and impedance relationship that apply for the
Bengal Fan are low ( V 10%) carbonate contents, i.e.,
the grain-size prediction is restricted to water depth
less than roughly 3000 m.
6. Shelf deposition and sediment bypassing
The shallow-water dispersal of sediment was
investigated along three core transects (for location
see Fig. 2): both the western transect, which located
close to the ‘Swatch of No Ground’, and the eastern
transect cover the delta foresets and the outer shelf,
whereas the smaller east – west transect close to Myan-
mar only covers the delta foresets. As an example,
Fig. 4 shows predicted clay and silt/sand contents for
the eastern core transect. Compared to the outer shelf,
the delta foresets show frequent fluctuations in the
clay and silt/sand ratios, indicative of rapid changes in
sedimentation conditions. The same high-frequency
variations are documented for sites 103 and 105 from
foresets of the western transect (Weber et al., 1997a).
Furthermore, for the outer shelf (sites 77 through 80),
silt/sand contents are usually around 90%, whereas for
the delta foresets, silt/sand contents are 65% and 62%
for the eastern and western transects, respectively.
Unfortunately, no log data are available for the outer
shelf sites of the western transect (sites 108, 110, 111,
112, and 113), but Wiedicke et al. (1999) detected
fossil, coarser-grained, beach barrriers of the last
glacial maximum underneath a thin transgressive
sediment cover for that area. Thus, the 25% higher
silt/sand contents clearly point to higher and more
stable transport regime at the outer shelf that pro-
hibited the deposition of fines.
368 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381

Fig. 4. Sand/silt and clay contents predicted quantitatively from acoustic impedance values (the product of density and velocity; for
methodology see Weber et al., 1997a) for the eastern core transect on the shelf (for location see Fig. 2). Sand/silt content is equivalent to silt
content because fine-grained sand only occurs in traces. For the eastern transect, sediment sites at the outer shelf (cores 77 through 80) have, on
average, 25% higher silt/sand content than sites at the recent delta foresets (cores 82 through 87).

The question is where did the fines go? Kuehl et al.
(1997) reported that only thin bottomset beds extend
across the outer shelf and overlie an erosional surface
presumed to be of Late Pleistocene age. Sediment
accumulation rates are highest in the foreset region
and reduced significantly in the bottomset region,
implying active prograding of the subaqueous delta
across the Bengal shelf. For the foresets, sedimenta-
tion conditions change rapidly as a result of channel
migration and shifting of depocenters as shown by
core logs of physical properties for the eastern (Fig. 4,
cores 82 – 87) and the western (Weber et al., 1997a)
core transects. The west–east transect close to Myan-
mar (for location see Fig. 2), however, has sand/silt
contents that are relatively stable downcore and group
around 65% for the easternmost cores 70, 69, and 66,
and around 85% for the westernmost cores 68, 71, and
72. Therefore, it is unlikely that significant deposition
occurred east of the active delta along or across the
west – east core transect.
Kuehl et al. (1997) estimated for the Holocene
subaqueous delta that one third of the total load of the
Ganges –Brahmaputra has accumulated on the shelf.
Michels et al. (1998) quantified the foreset prograding
at 15 m/year, providing storage space for approxi-
mately 20% of the riverine load. However, the sig-
nificant remainder of 65% to 80% of the suspended
material is likely partitioned between the river flood-
plain and delta plain and mostly off-shelf transport to
the submarine canyon ‘Swatch of No Ground’. Sub-
stantial westward transport of sediment past the sub-
marine canyon to the Indian side of the subaqueous
delta is unlikely because of clay-mineralogical con-
siderations (Segall and Kuehl, 1992).
Sedimentation rates of z 1 m/year at the head of
the canyon (site 96; Kudrass et al., 1998) are extra-
ordinary high, because of the huge riverine input and
because the canyon taps the delta foresets in that
region. Furthermore, sediment resuspended by storms
and tides is efficiently trapped in the canyon, thus
bypassing the outer shelf (Wiedicke et al., 1999). The
extreme sediment load would fill the entire canyon in
less than 1 kyear; yet the canyon is incised deeply into
the shelf (roughly 1 km at the shelf edge). Therefore,
frequent ‘‘flushing’’, i.e., turbiditic events, have to
occur to deliver suspended material to the southern
connection of the canyon, the only active channel –
levee system on the fan. Growth faults at the edges as
well as sliding and slumping as initial steps of
turbidity-current generation are indicated in seismic
 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381
reflection records across the canyon head (Hübscher
et al., 1997).
7. Turbidite activity with respect to sea level
Turbidite sedimentation is the dominant process on
the Bengal Fan, delivering fine-grained clastic mate-
rial from land as a result of the uplift of the Himalayas
(e.g., Curray and Moore, 1971; Sclater et al., 1974).
Sequence-stratigraphic models (e.g., Weimer, 1990;
Vail et al., 1991) imply that turbidite sedimentation
strengthened during sea-level fall and peaked during
sea-level lowstand, when sediments were supplied
directly via canyons to the deeper basin. Thus, the
submarine fan grew significantly during the last
glacial. As sea level rose, the fluvial-sediment supply
was arrested on the shelf as transgressive nearshore
deposits (Stow et al., 1984), and only hemipelagic
sediments should have been deposited on the fan
(Feeley et al., 1990). However, Weber et al. (1997b)
pointed out that roughly 500 km away from the shelf
edge (cores 117 – 120, see Fig. 1), turbidite sedimen-
tation continued at least along the youngest channel –
levee system, through sea-level rise and even through
the Holocene sea-level highstand, depositing more
than 10 m of sediment on inner levees since the Early
Holocene. The peak growth phase occurred at the end
of the Younger Dryas, but average grain size did not
decrease significantly during the entire growth. This
interpretation is corroborated by a study from Kuehl et
al. (1989), providing clear evidence for sediment
bypassing the shelf (see below), whereas Emmel and
Curray (1984) concluded in an earlier study that the
major channel has been abandoned since the last sea-
level rise. According to Hübscher et al. (1997), inner
levee development started when sediment input
decreased, i.e., sea level rose, and turbidity currents
became channel-constricted and could no longer sig-
nificantly overspill the outer channel walls.
A compilation of sediment sites collected during
Sonne cruises 93 (this study) and 51, as well as several
cores collected by Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory
(Fig. 1), provides further evidence for continued
turbidite sedimentation throughout the Holocene at
the lower fan (sites 19, 24, 27, 29), whereas in the
central part of the fan, Holocene turbidites are not
preserved. Outside the currently active channel, Hol-
369
ocene sediment consists primarily of fine-grained mud
that is partly bioturbated (Figs. 1 and 3), indicative of
hemipelagic to pelagic sediment, i.e., large parts of the
fan are, indeed, sediment-starved and inactive during
the Holocene sea-level highstand.
8. Depositional environments along the transport
path
According to the positive relation of density and
velocity in Figs. 5 and 6, Bengal Fan sediment is
generally composed of terrigenous material. Thus, it
reflects varying grain sizes, ranging mainly from
muddy sediment with lower densities and velocities
to silty sediment with higher densities and velocities
(see also Section 5). In Fig. 5, log data of 47 sites
from cruise SO-93 are displayed for five different,
progressively deepening environments along the
transport path of suspended material. Absolute grain
sizes are determined most adequately by relating
impedance and velocity (Fig. 5D), indicating coarser
grain sizes at higher values. Comparison between
shelf and fan reveals that significantly coarser material
is stored on the shelf, with the outer shelf storing
coarser material than the delta foreset. The fact that
the outer shelf did not receive any substantial sedi-
ment deposition throughout the Holocene (see dis-
cussion above), is probably related to the relatively
high transport energy that can be inferred from the
coarser grain size.
The upper fan archives only a very narrow range of
relatively fine grain sizes, although we have to point
out that here, only sites from outside the active
channel area were retrieved. The midfan shows more
scattering and coarser average grain sizes than the
upper fan, whereas the lower fan reveals the largest
scatter, yielding both finest and coarsest grain sizes
among all parts of the fan. On one hand, relatively
coarse-grained sediments at the high-density, high-
velocity end (Fig. 5A,D) occur on turbidite-dominated
plains (sites 9, 19, 24, and 29), where particle flow is
less restricted to well-defined channels (Normark and
Piper, 1991) compared to the upper and middle fan
areas, where channels have well-defined walls up to
60 m high (Hübscher et al., 1997). Thus, the coarse-
grained material that was kept in suspension as a
result of the higher energy of channel-constrained
370 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381

Fig. 5. Scatter diagrams of Multi-Sensor Core Logger (MSCL) data from 47 sites of cruise SO-93 divided into five different, water-depth related
environments: delta foreset (sites 63, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 95, 103, and 105), outer shelf (sites 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 96, 107,
128), upper fan (sites 114, 124, and 126), midfan (sites 115, 117, 118, 119, 120), and lower fan (9, 19, 22, 24, 27, 28, 29, 34, 36, 39, 40, 42, 45,
46, 47, and 49). For location see Figs. 1 and 2. The positive relation of density and velocity indicates terrigenous sediment with varying grain
sizes. Sediment from the lower fan shows the largest scatter of physical properties.

flows at the upper and midfan areas, was released at
the lower fan in a sheetlike manner with levees
forming no longer topographic highs farther away
from the channel axis (see also Hübscher et al.,
1997). One the other hand, for fine-grained sediments
at the low-density end (Fig. 5A,D), velocity shows no
or even negative correlation to density, indicative for
higher contents of biogenic material (hemipelagic to
pelagic sediments, e.g., sites 22 and 28).
Another parameter we use to distinguish different
fan environments and associated depositional pro-
cesses is magnetic susceptibility (Figs. 5 and 6),
which mainly describes the amount of magnetite
present in a sediment (Thompson and Oldfield,
1986). For the Bengal Fan, magnetic susceptibility
is usually higher in coarse-grained (coarse-silty) sedi-
ment where density and velocity are increased, too
(Figs. 5 and 6). This is surprising because the size of
 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381 371

Fig. 6. Scatter diagrams of MSCL data from 25 sites of cruise SO-93 divided into three fan environments: currently or past active channels
including inner levees (sites 9, 19, 36, 40, 45, 46, 47, and 49), levee and outer levee sediments (sites 27, 32, 39, 42, 51, 54, 56, 117, 118, 119,
and 120), and hemipelagic to pelagic sediments (sites 1, 22, 28, 115, 124, and 126). For location see Fig. 1. Channel sediment provides the
largest scatter with the coarsest grain sizes deposited. Pelagic sediment varies within a very narrow range, indicative for only minor current
influence on sedimentation.

magnetite grains is normally only a few micrometers
and therefore magnetic susceptibility should be higher
in fine-grained terrigenous sediment. Two mecha-
nisms can account for the observed distribution: first,
changing source areas with high (e.g., basaltic rocks,
volcanic regions) and low (sedimentary basins)
amounts of magnetite; and second, variations in sedi-
ment transport energy. Core-internal variations are
most likely linked to variations in sediment transport
energy (see Fig. 7), whereas the general increase of
magnetic susceptibility with water depth in Fig. 5
(shelf sediment has low values around 750 SI units;
the same is true for the upper fan, whereas at the
middle and lower fans, values increase up to 2000 SI
units) shows that a significant portion of the suscept-
ibility signal cannot be derived from land. Instead, we
propose a deepwater source where, for example,
magnetite spherules were formed as a result of vol-
372 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381

Fig. 7. Facies, physical and optical sediment properties, and interpreted sediment transport energy for core 40 from a young levee within the
main channel in the lower fan area (for location see Fig. 1). This site reveals 11 distinct turbidite events (T), which characterize a high-energy
environment that is manifested by all log parameters.

canic and hydrothermal activity in the central Indian
Ocean (Iyer et al., 1999). The most prominent source
would probably be the Toba volcano, which has a
widespread signature in the central Indian Ocean (e.g.,
Pattan et al., 1999). It has repeatedly been an active
supplier of magnetic material throughout the Late
Pleistocene (Chesner et al., 1991) and is located to
the southeast of the Bengal Fan, i.e., the deeper fan
will always be more affected by eruptions than the
upper fan or shelf.
In order to distinguish sedimentation processes on
the fan, log data of individual sites are displayed for
three environments perpendicular to the transport path
(Fig. 6): (i) pelagic to hemipelagic sediments (sites 1,
22, 28, 115, 124, and 126), (ii) levee and outer levee
sediments (sites 27, 32, 39, 42, 51, 54, 56, 117, 118,
119, and 120), and (iii) currently or past active
channel settings including inner levee structures (sites
9, 19, 36, 40, 45, 46, 47, and 49). Hemipelagic and
pelagic sediments are indicative of minor current
control on sedimentation and pelagic accumulation
of rather fine-grained, partially biogenic material far
outside the active terrigenous sedimentation that is
associated with channel – levee deposits. Due to the
higher biogenic content, hemipelagic and pelagic
sediments show only low magnetic susceptibilities
( V 400 SI units; Fig. 6B,C) and a narrow range of
density and velocity variations. Levee and outer levee
sediments are also fine-grained but include a coarser
grain-size fraction in discrete beds (Fig. 6D) as
inferred from the log data, which is typical for over-
bank deposits (e.g., Hesse and Chough, 1980) that
were accumulated during large-volume flows. The
fact that sediment waves with f 1-km wavelength
and 1– 3-m height were deposited on the outer levees
(Hübscher et al., 1997), provides evidence that tur-
bidity currents were thicker than the channel depth
(Normark et al., 1980).
The largest scatter of physical properties and the
coarsest average grain sizes are documented for both
active channel and inner levee sediments. The loss of
the upper, fine-grained suspension of the turbidity
current to levees and outer levees results in relative
coarsening of material (i) within the channel and the
 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381 373

inner levees (Fig. 6A,D), and (ii) downstream from
the upper to the lower fan (Fig. 5A,D). Hiscott et al.
(1997) reported the same results for the Amazon Fan.
The downstream increase in grain size is most likely
enhanced by the decrease in levee height and the
narrowing of the active channel described by Hüb-
scher et al. (1997) for the Bengal Fan.
Site 40 from a young levee within the main channel
in the lower fan area provides an impressive example
for this environment with 11 well-defined turbidites
that are 5 –35-cm thick and that contain coarse-silty
lags and fining-upward beds (Fig. 7). Individual turbi-
ditic events are manifested by all physical and optical
sediment properties. The inferred higher transport
energy during such an event indicates that this environ-
ment is the most active part of the fan during the
Holocene as it has been during the Pleistocene.
The above examples show that log data are
extremely useful in describing sedimentation pro-
cesses and assigning facies. For terrigenous sediments
from continental margin settings, such as the Bengal
Fan, grain-size and, in turn, turbidity current activity
can be inferred and different environments can be
compared and distinguished based on log data.

Fig. 8. Bathymetric map (obtained by HYDROSWEEP sonar system) of inactive meandering channel in lower fan area. Core 47 is located at the
inner levee of a 2-km-wide channel – levee system that is incised into a larger and older 6 – 12-km-wide channel – levee system. For location see
Fig. 1. Contour interval is 10 m.
374 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381

9. Channel abandonment
A quantitative capturing of both the temporal and
the spatial variability of turbidite sedimentation on the
entire Bengal Fan is certainly beyond any current
research capabilities because of the enormous size of
the fan and its complex architecture. However, the
study of channel migration provides insight into the
inner dynamics of the fan and into the timing of
channel abandonment in relation to sea level and
climate change. Emmel and Curray (1984) identified
many abandoned or unconnected and partly buried
channels on high-resolution-seismic reflection pro-
files. We investigated a small area on the lower
fan far to the east of the active channel – levee system
at site 47 (Fig. 8; for location see bold signature in
Fig. 1).
Hydrosweep bathymetry shows a younger mean-
dering channel which is about 2 km wide within an
older and much larger channel which is 6 –12 km
wide. The flanks of the larger channel are only
partially covered by bathymetric lines. These multi-
phased channel systems are morphologically compa-
rable to onshore fluvial rivers, exhibiting a lower
flood terrace with a smaller channel incised into a
higher older and much larger channel. Site 47 is
located on the inner levee shoulder (comparable to
the lower flood terrace) of the small and younger
channel. This core contains two distinctly different
lithologic units (Fig. 9): a lower unit containing 10
distinct turbidites which are clearly identified by all
physical property records, and a mainly hemipelagic
unit of approximately 6-m thickness above.
In order to date the boundary between the two
units, i.e., the end of turbidite sedimentation on the
inner levee shoulder, we first measured the y18O
variation in planktonic foraminifera species G. ruber
and benthic species C. wuellerstorfi. These data sets
indicate that turbidite sedimentation ceased at approx-
imately 300 ka, a result that is further corroborated by

Fig. 9. Facies, physical and optical sediment properties, interpreted sediment transport energy, carbonate content, and y18O records of planktonic
foraminifera species G. ruber and of benthic species C. wuellerstorfi for core 47 (for location see Fig. 1). FAD is first appearance date of
Emiliania huxley; vertical bar refers to stratigraphic extent of G. ruber (pink). There are 10 distinct turbidites (T) in the lower part of the record,
and the inferred end of turbidite sedimentation is at approximately 300 ka.
 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381 375

the stratigraphic extent of G. ruber (pink) and, espe-
cially, by the first appearance date of Emiliania huxley
at 575 cm, which translates into 285 ka (early isotopic
stage 8) according to Ahagon et al. (1993).
The end of turbidite sedimentation at 300 ka most
likely reflects channel abandonment, although the
record of site 47 could also be explained by a deeper
incision of the channel thalweg. In either way, the
channel – levee system could no longer have served as
a major sediment transport path. Channel abandon-
ment at 300 ka corresponds to a late interglacial
lowering in sea level during isotopic stage 9 that
should have been accompanied by increased sediment
supply from land (see discussion above). Thus, the
most plausible possibility is that, at the moment the
shelf fell dry, sediment load, current volume, and
velocity within the channel increased significantly,
forcing the channel–levee system to bifurcate farther
upstream. Accordingly, channel abandonment could
be closely related to orbitally driven climate change,
because cooling and built-up of polar ice sheets
lowered sea level and remotely influenced sedimenta-
tion patterns on the fan. Of course, channel bifurcation
due to crevasse splay development can be related to
other causes such as tectonic events. However, tec-
tonic events can, in turn, also be related to climate
change (e.g., Kennett et al., 2000; see discussion
below). Bottom line is, all of these explanations call
for a significantly reduced transport energy after 300
ka for that part of the fan.
10. Deep-sea response to Milankovitch forcing
Pelagic sediment cores 22 and 28 from the lower
fan area originate from the flanks of little seamounts.
The cores are located roughly 40 m above the plains
that are dominated by turbidites. Thus, they are ideal
sites to archive the interaction between pelagic climate
signals and distal fan activity. Both cores extend back
to isotopic stage 16 (roughly 630 ka) and provide a
cyclic record of sediment components (Fig. 10). The

Fig. 10. Temporal variation of y18O of G. ruber and C. wuellerstorfi, sediment lightness (gray value), carbonate content, and magnetic
susceptibility for deep-sea sites 22 and 28 over the last 630 ka. Underlain is the normalized y18O stack of Imbrie et al. (1984) that was used to
assign ages to the G. ruber and C. wuellerstorfi records. Italic numbers at the right mark warm isotopic stages (gray areas). Toba Ashes 1 and 2
mark the position of the two youngest tuff eruptions of the Toba caldera (Indonesia) at 75 and 501 ka, respectively (Chesner et al., 1991).
376 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381
sediment cycles reflect climatic oscillations that are
controlled by variations in the earth’s orbital eccen-
tricity (100 kyear), obliquity (41 kyear), and preces-
sion (21 kyear) in the Milankovitch frequency band
which affect the global, seasonal, and latitudinal
distribution of the incoming solar insolation (Hilgen
et al., 1997). Variability in cores 22 and 28 is mainly a
result of the interplay of climatically driven changes
in carbonate content and magnetic susceptibility (Fig.
10), whereby color measurements (lightness) mimic
carbonate variations. Most climatic proxies show a
certain degree of similarity with higher carbonate
contents, lighter colors, and lower susceptibilities
during interglacial cycles (gray times in Fig. 10),
when y18O values were lighter (more negative).
Higher carbonate contents during interglacials indi-
cate Altantic-type variation rather than Pacific-type
variation (Volat et al., 1980).
Spectral analysis applied to the time series of Fig.
10 indicates that the response to orbital forcing is
quite similar for both cores but the importance of
individual frequencies differs among sediment com-
ponents: for y18O records, the 100-kyear cycle pre-
vails; for carbonate and lightness, the 21-kyear cycle
is dominant; and for magnetic susceptibility, the 41-
kyear cycle is most important. The 100-kyear cycle
governs marine y18O records since roughly 900 –800
kyear, when ice volume changes became large enough
to have the dominant influence on global climate (e.g.,
Shackleton et al., 1990). Seasonal insolation changes
in low latitudes are affected primarily by variations in
orbital precession (e.g., Imbrie et al., 1992). Thus, the
dominant carbonate (and lightness) response to 21-
kyear precession forcing should reflect low-latitude
forcing, most likely caused by monsoonal variability
(Clemens et al., 1991).
The dominant response of the magnetic suscepti-
bility signal to 41-kyear obliquity forcing should be
indicative for high northern-latitude processes (Rud-
diman et al., 1989), where changes in the earth’s or-
bital tilt have a strong effect on seasonal insolation
changes. Magnetic susceptibility was increased during
minimum obliquity. For core-internal variations,
higher contents imply coarser terrigenous grain sizes
which, in turn, point to increased fan activity during
times of lowered tilt. Because climate variability of
the investigation area depends largely on monsoonal
variations, teleconnections to high northern latitudes
must have been established during the Late Quater-
nary.
11. Upper fan response to millennial-scale climate
change
Since the early nineties, high-frequency climate
change on time scales of a few millennia, centuries,
or even decades has been discovered by the atmos-
pheric temperature record of air bubbles trapped in
Greenland ice cores (Dansgaard et al., 1993) with
major frequencies around 1500– 1400 and 750 year,
the so-called Dansgaard – Oeschger (DO) cycles.
Bond and Lotti (1995) were the first to track these
changes into the ocean and proved thereby that
atmospheric variations and surface-ocean variations
are linked to the same climate forcing, yet the nature
of that forcing is still unknown (see discussion
below). Since then, a number of studies have encoun-
tered additional oceanic regions where high-frequency
climate change occurred.
Sites 115, 124, and 126 were analyzed for potential
high-frequency climate change. We first generated a
low-resolution age model (Fig. 11A) by measuring the
y18O variation in planktonic foraminifera G. ruber
and tuning that record to the global y18O stack of
Martinson et al. (1987). Age control points taken at
isotopic stage boundaries served as ground-truth data
for fine-tuning the density records of the three sites to
the y18O record of the GISP2 ice core for the last
glacial cycle (Fig. 11B).
Density records of Fig. 11 as well as velocity and
magnetic susceptibility records (not displayed) pro-
vide clear evidence for a close relationship between
low-latitude climate records from the upper Bengal
Fan and rapid air temperature fluctuations of high
northern latitudes recorded in the Greenland ice sheet.
Although the peak-to-peak correlation is largely a
result of tuning within the given age control points
from istotopic stage boundaries (gray horizontal bars
in Fig. 11A), the assignation seems sound because the
general trend of ice-core variability is captured rather
accurately by core-log variability (Fig. 11B), in spite
of the fact that the temporal resolution of the log data
is significantly lower (400 year for core 115; 380 year
for core 124; and 250 year for core 126). Spectral
analyses performed for both ice core and Bengal Fan
 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381 377

Fig. 11. A (left) is y18O records of G. ruber (black) tuned to the global y18O stack (gray) of Martinson et al. (1987) for upper-slope sites 126,
115, and 124 during the last 200 ka. Bold italic numbers mark isotopic stages. B (right) is density records of sites 126, 115, and 124 (black)
tuned to the y18O record (gray) of the GISP2 ice core (Dansgaard et al., 1993) for the last 110 ka. Italic numbers refer to Dansgaard/Oeschger
cycles. The five isotopic stage boundaries (gray horizontal bars) from the correlation to the Martinson et al. (1987) stack (left) served as ground-
truth data for the fine-tuning of the density records to the GISP2 isotopic record (right).

sites indicate shared frequencies of climate variability
for both hemispheres around 750 year, 850 year, 1
kyear, 1.5 kyear, and 2.5 kyear.
Although we are not able to establish any temporal
leads or lags between the ice core and the Bengal Fan
records because of the tuning procedure, the correla-
tion between the two suggests that higher density,
velocity, and magnetic susceptibility values are asso-
ciated with cooler temperatures over Greenland. This
can be translated into coarser grain sizes, greater
transport energy, and increased sediment supply from
the Ganges Brahmaputra river systems during cool
climate, an interpretation that is corroborated by the
observation that the last cooling event, the Younger
Dryas, also yielded increased fan activity and sedi-
ment supply to the continental slope (Weber et al.,
1997b). Reduced transport energy and less sediment
supply from land would then be associated with warm
interstadials. Climate variability of the Bengal Fan is
ultimately related to changes in monsoonal strength
(moisture). Synchronism between subtropical mon-
soon and Greenland climate is also inferred from a
study of Sirocko et al. (1996). Monsoonally driven
high-frequency climate change has also been ob-
served for the Arabian Sea as the collapse and
build-up of the oxygen minimum zone off Pakistan
(Schulz et al., 1998). Therefore, the required tele-
connection to high northern latitude climate could
have been established by atmospheric moisture and
other greenhouse gases.
The cause of high-frequency climate change is still
unknown. This type of climate change is documented
in the Sub-Milankovitch frequency band and can,
therefore, not be driven orbitally. A number of studies
378 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381
that focused primarily on the northern North Atlantic,
favor either instabilities in large ice-sheets from the
northern hemisphere (e.g., MacAyeal, 1993) or insta-
bilities in the thermohaline circulation (e.g., Broecker
et al., 1990). Kennett et al. (2000) put forward a new,
compelling theory to explain climate change on both
orbital and millennial time scales. They argue that
episodes of methane hydrate instability in the oceans
have induced rapid climate change. Accordingly,
instability of the gas hydrate reservoir resulted from
critical ice-sheet extent and from influence on changes
in sea level. Massive methane release into the water
column could have several consequences. Initially, it
could lead to slope instability/failure or to changes in
bottom-water temperature and hence explain the man-
ifestation of millennial-scale variability in physical
property records from many continental margin envi-
ronments, including those that are not directly affected
by thermohaline convection or glaciated continental
margins. Also, during an early stage, methane release
into the water column could trigger the build-up and
collapse of the oxygen minimum zone in the neigh-
boring Arabian Sea. Successive methane release into
the atmosphere could trigger warmings that were
reinforced by other greenhouse gases, especially water
vapor, and thus impacted temperature records of high-
latitude ice cores.
12. Summary and conclusions
We used sediment physical properties and geo-
chemical data from 47 sediment cores, collected
during cruise 93 with RV Sonne, to study sediment
dispersal on the Bengal Shelf and to reconstruct fan
activity and response to climate forcing on the Bengal
Fan. Low sediment density and velocity, which were
determined nondestructively at 2-cm increments,
define fine-grained terrigenous sediment. Increased
densities, velocities, and magnetic susceptibilities
correlate with coarser grain-sizes and thus allow for
the prediction of clay and silt/sand contents from core
log data with a precision better than 95%, providing
high-resolution downcore records of grain-size varia-
tion for each site (Weber et al., 1997a). We used this
information to infer sediment transport energy and to
assign, in combination with stratigraphic evidence,
areas and times of active sediment supply and depo-
sition along the 3000-km-long transport path from the
delta platform to the lower fan.
Delta foresets show frequent fluctuations in the
clay and silt/sand ratios, indicative of rapid changes in
sedimentation conditions in a shallow-water environ-
ment, where the foresets currently prograde by 15 m/
year (Michels et al., 1998), and thereby trap roughly
one third of the total riverine input (Kuehl et al.,
1997). For the outer shelf, clay content is 25% lower,
pointing to higher transport energy that has almost
prohibited deposition of fines on a Late Pleistocene
relic surface. No significant deposition is currently
indicated for the region west of the shelf canyon
‘Swatch of No Ground’ (Segall and Kuehl, 1992) or
east of the delta foresets. The majority of suspended
material appears to bypass the shelf (e.g., Kuehl et al.,
1997), deposit within the canyon, and frequently
reach the fan by turbidity currents flowing along the
major channel –levee system (Weber et al., 1997b).
Density and velocity data of the 47 sites reveal that
significantly coarser-grained material is stored on the
shelf than on the middle and lower fan areas. The
upper fan archives only a very narrow range of
relatively fine grain sizes, the midfan shows more
scattering and coarser grain sizes, and the lower fan
has the largest scatter and the coarsest grain sizes for
both Pleistocene and Holocene. The derived terrige-
nous grain-size distribution and inferred differences in
sediment transport energy indicate that coarser-
grained suspended material bypasses the upper fan
as well as upper parts of the middle fan, where particle
flow is enhanced because of flow-restriction in well-
defined channels. The loss of the upper, fine-grained
suspension to levees and outer levees, results in
transport and deposition of coarser material along
the transport path. Coarse-grained (sandier) material
is deposited mainly in turbidite-dominated plains at
the lower fan, where particle flow is no longer strictly
channel-constrained (Hübscher et al., 1997). Magnetic
susceptibilities progressively increase toward the
lower fan, pointing to a deepwater source of the
signal, whereas core-internal variations are related to
grain-size changes.
On the fan, currently or past active channels
including inner levee structures, show the coarsest
terrigenous grain sizes (e.g., site 40) that suggest
active transport and sedimentation of 5– 35-cm-thick
turbidites within the major channel – levee system.
 M.E. Weber et al. / Sedimentary Geology 155 (2003) 361–381
Inner and outer levees contain both coarse and fine
fractions that are typical for thin-bedded overbank
deposits. Pelagic and hemipelagic sediments yield
accumulation of rather fine-grained, partly biogenic
material that indicates low sediment transport energy
for sedimentation outside the active part of the fan. At
least along the major channel – levee system, turbidite
sedimentation continued through the last sea-level rise
and the Holocene highstand.
Evidence for channel abandonment is provided for
the lower fan far east of the active channel – levee
system. Site 47 from the inner levee shoulder of the
small and younger channel that is incised into an older
larger system, shows turbiditic deposition until ap-
proximately 300 ka and pelagic sediment deposition
since then. The end of turbidite sedimentation at 300
ka implies channel abandonment during the sea-level
regression of late interglacial isotopic stage 9, prob-
ably when the shelf fell dry and both sediment load
and current volume increased so that the channel –
levee system had to change its path by crevasse-splay
development farther upstream.
Deep-sea sites 22 and 28 contain a record of
climate response to orbital forcing for the last 630
ka. y18O has a dominant 100-kyear cycle responding
to eccentricity forcing that probably led to changes in
global ice volume. Carbonate and sediment lightness
respond to low-latitude monsoonal forcing on the 21-
kyear precession cycle. Magnetic susceptibility re-
veals mainly 41-kyear cycles, responding to high-
latitude forcing and pointing to increased fan activity
during minimum tilt.
All physical properties from upper slope sites 115,
124, and 126 contain a record of climate response to
sub-orbital forcing in the Dansgaard – Oeschger fre-
quency band. Correlation to the y18O record of the
GISP2 ice core suggests that higher density, velocity,
and magnetic susceptibility values are associated with
cooler arctic temperatures, i.e., greater transport
energy and increased sediment supply from the
Ganges Brahmaputra river systems correspond to cool
climate over Greenland. Major periodicities range
from 750 year to 2.5 kyear and are shared between
the two hemispheres, pointing to a strong link of low-
latitude monsoonal climate and high northern latitude
climate, perhaps through instabilities in the methane
hydrate reservoir as proposed by Kennett et al.
(2000).
379
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank J.R. Curray for helpful comments
on the manuscript and for editorial assistance. W.R.
Normark and H. Nelson kindly provided thorough
reviews that improved the quality of the manuscript.
M.E.W. was supported by the Deutsche Forschungs-
gemeinschaft (DFG; grant We2039/2-1) and by the
National Science and Research Council (NSERC;
CSHD grant, thanks to L.A. Mayer). The cruise
SONNE 93 was supported by the Bundesministerium
für Bildung, Forschung und Technologie (BMBF;
grant 03 G 0093A). All data of this paper are available
at the PANGAEA Network for Geological and
Environmental Data (thanks to H. Grobe, M. Die-
penbrook, and R. Sieger) hosted by the Alfred-
Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research
(http://www.pangaea.de/home/mweber/).
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