Indications for bottom current activity since Eocene times: The climate and ocean gateway archive of the Transkei Basin, South Africa

The Transkei Basin deposits document the sediment transport around South Africa and, hence, reveal details of palaeocurrent activity of this region for the past 36 my. Thermohaline driven water masses like the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) and the Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), which are part of the global conveyor belt and the main motor for the heat transfer worldwide, have to pass the southern tip of Africa. A large amount of their sedimentary freight is deposited in the submarine Transkei Basin. By the investigation of high resolution seismic reflection data from central Transkei Basin sediments, we reconstructed depocentres and interface outlines for five different time slices since Cretaceous times. Since at least Late Eocene times, we observe an increasing activity of proto-AABW and later proto-NADW in the Transkei Basin. The currentʹs settings were recurrently modified by various large scale global events, like the opening of the Drake Passage Gateway and the Tasman Gateway ( 34 Ma), respectively, or the closure of the Panama Isthmus ( 3 Ma). The investigations reveal a strong influence of global tectonic and climatic events on NADW and (proto-) AABW and their influence on Transkei Basin deposition.