Equatorial pacific seismic reflectors as indicators of global oceanographic events

The origin of a series of regionally correlatable seismic horizons in the Neogene sediments of the central equatorial Pacific is examined through seismic modeling and the detailed analyses of stratigraphic and physical property relationships in Deep Sea Drilling Project cores. These regionally traceable reflectors are synchronous; the younger reflectors are the direct result of carbonate dissolution events, the older ones of stratigraphically selective diagenetic processes. The changes in ocean chemistry associated with these events appear to be linked to global reorganizations of surface and bottom-water circulation patterns, the most dramatic of which are associated with reorganizations of North Atlantic bottom waters. These deepwater seismic horizons appear to correlate with the major events on the "relative sea-level" curve of Vail et al. for the Neogene.