Site U1485

Abstract

International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Site U1485 is located ~19 km off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea at 03°06.16ʹS, 142°47.59ʹE in 1145 m water depth. Site U485 is located in a tectonically complex region east of the Cyclops Mountains and west of the Sepik/Ramu River mouths. The high sedimentation rates at Site U1485 provide the potential to resolve late middle to late Pleistocene centennial- to millennial-scale climate variability in the Western Pacific Warm Pool. Comparing these high-resolution records with comparable ones for the North Atlantic and eastern equatorial Pacific will us to better constrain the mechanisms influencing millennial-scale variability. This site will also provide insights on orbital-scale variability during the late middle to late Pleistocene. Finally, Site U1485 will allow us to examine the southern Pacific contribution to the Indonesian Throughflow.