Data report: clay mineral assemblages within biocalcareous and volcaniclastic inputs to the Hikurangi subduction zone, IODP Expedition 372B/375 Sites U1520 and U1526, offshore New Zealand

Abstract

Inputs to the Hikurangi subduction zone, offshore North Island, New Zealand, include volcaniclastic conglomerates that were deposited during the Late Cretaceous on the flanks of the subducting basement of Hikurangi Plateau. The overlying succession of pelagic carbonates is early Paleocene to early Pleistocene in age and ranges in composition from calcareous mudstone to muddy chalk and chalk. A thick wedge of Quaternary trench sediments occupies the top of the stratigraphic succession. International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 375 cored those subduction inputs at two sites. Site U1520 is located on the distal edge of the trench, and Site U1526 is located near the crest of Tūranganui Knoll, where a highly condensed section of pelagic-hemipelagic sediment covers the basalt basement. This report provides the results of 128 X-ray diffraction analyses of the clay-sized fraction (<2 μm spherical settling equivalent), where smectite + illite + undifferentiated (chlorite + kaolinite) + quartz = 100%. Clay minerals in the altered volcaniclastic conglomerates and basalt consist almost exclusively of smectite. At Site U1520, the normalized abundance of smectite in overlying biocalcareous sediments ranges from 28.3 to 72.9 wt% (mean = 54.2 wt%), whereas the abundance of illite ranges from 16.1 to 49.0 wt% (mean = 32.0 wt%). The range for undifferentiated chlorite + kaolinite is 0.3–17.8 wt% (mean = 7.4 wt%), and the range for clay-sized quartz is 2.7–20.5 wt% (mean = 6.4 wt%). Upsection depletion of smectite in those sediments is balanced by upsection enrichment of illite. That same age-dependent trend is evident in coeval biocalcareous drift sediments from Ocean Drilling Program Sites 1123 (North Chatham drift) and 1124 (Rekohu drift). Moving downsection at Site U1520, indicators of clay diagenesis are inconsistent. Values of illite crystallinity index increase (i.e., peak broadening), whereas the proportion of illite within illite/smectite mixed-layer clays increases with depth.