Sediment cores recently collected from the Chilean Margin during D/V JOIDES Resolution Expedition 379T (JR100) document high- and low-frequency variability in shipboard-generated records of the spectral Green/Blue (G/B) ratio. These changes show a strong coherence with foraminiferal isotope composition, Antarctic ice core records, and sediment lithology (e.g., higher diatom abundances in greener sediment intervals), suggesting a climate-related control on the G/B ratio. Here, we test the utility of G/B as a proxy for diatom productivity at Sites J1002 and J1007 by calibrating G/B to measured biogenic opal. Strong exponential correlations between measured opal content and the G/B ratio were found at both sites. We use the empirical regressions to generate continuous records of opal contents (opal%) on the Chilean Margin. Redox-sensitive sedimentary U/Th generally co-varies with the reconstructed opal% at both sites, supporting the association between sediment color, sedimentary U/Th, and productivity. Lastly, we calculated opal mass accumulation rate (MAR) at Site J1007 over the last ~150,000 years. The G/B-derived opal MAR record from Site J1007 largely tracks existing records derived from traditional wet-alkaline digestion from the south and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, with a common opal flux peak at ~ 50 ka suggesting that this increased diatom productivity in the eastern equatorial Pacific was likely driven by enhance nutrient supply from the Southern Ocean rather than dust inputs as previously suggested. Collectively, our results identify the G/B ratio as a useful tool with the potential to generate reliable, high-resolution paleoceanographic records that circumvent the traditionally laborious methodology.

During each International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) expedition a vast array of data, typically amounting to hundreds of gigabytes to several terabytes of information, are collected from drill cores. These data include physical, chemical, and magnetic properties and digital images collected continuously or every few centimeters along the cores using automated track systems, as well as a variety of analyses conducted on discrete subsamples taken from the cores. Coring just since the start of Expedition 349 in January 2014 has recovered over 50 km of core, resulting in a very large amount of data, most of which are accessible from the IODP LIMS database. Some of the properties typically measured include P-wave velocity, density, magnetic susceptibility, natural remanent magnetization, natural gamma radiation, and visible spectral reflectance. In addition, the lithology of all cores is described based mainly on visual characteristics of the surface of the split cores, visual examination of smear slides and thin sections, and compositional or mineralogical information derived from geochemical analyses. Our goal in this study is to mine these data for interrelationships that would otherwise be difficult to assess given the way the data are partitioned by specific property within the database. In particular, we extract basic lithologic information from the complex array of descriptive information and then tie that information to all other observations in order to characterize the physical, chemical, and magnetic properties of a myriad of lithologies.

Pore water freshening (i.e., decreases in dissolved Cl) has been documented in marine sediments along most active margins, with the migration of deep fluids or methane hydrate dissociation often invoked as sources of freshening in the sediment column. During D/V JOIDES Resolution Expedition 379T in 2019, two new sites (J1005 and J1006) were cored near ODP Site 1233 (41°S), adjacent to a seafloor mound venting structure. The three sites are less than 10 km apart but show marked differences in pore water chemistry and methane hydrate occurrence. The extent of Cl decrease is a function of distance from the mound, with the strongest freshening occurring at the closest site (J1006), which is the only site where methane hydrate was observed. Methane fluxes follow the same pattern, suggesting a common control. Increasing oxygen and decreasing hydrogen isotopes point to deep mineral bound water as the primary source of freshening near the mound, with fluids originating ~2.5 km below seafloor near the décollement. Secondary influences from methane hydrate dissociation and ash diagenesis also appear to influence regional pore water chemistry. The variability in pore water freshening suggests that fluid migration and eventual expulsion at the venting structure follows narrow pathways, likely along faults within the forearc complex. The migration of deep, gas-charged fluids may also support methane hydrate saturations greater than in situ organic carbon diagenesis would allow, but nonetheless consistent with geophysical estimates. Together, the data highlight an important link between fluid migration and methane hydrate formation on the Chilean Margin.