Trans-Amazon Drilling Project (TADP): origins and evolution of the forests, climate, and hydrology of the South American tropics

Trans-Amazon Drilling Project (TADP): origins and evolution of the forests, climate, and hydrology of the South American tropics

This article presents the scientific rationale for an ambitious ICDP drilling project to continuously sample Late Cretaceous to modern sediment in four different sedimentary basins that transect the equatorial Amazon of Brazil, from the Andean foreland to the Atlantic Ocean. The goals of this projec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific drilling (Hokkaido, Japan) Vol. 20; no. 20; pp. 41 - 49
Main Authors: Baker, P. A, Fritz, S. C, Silva, C. G, Rigsby, C. A, Absy, M. L, Almeida, R. P, Caputo, M, Chiessi, C. M, Cruz, F. W, Dick, C. W, Feakins, S. J, Figueiredo, J, Freeman, K. H, Hoorn, C, Jaramillo, C, Kern, A. K, Latrubesse, E. M, Ledru, M. P, Marzoli, A, Myrbo, A, Noren, A, Piller, W. E, Ramos, M. I. F, Ribas, C. C, Trnadade, R, West, A. J, Wahnfried, I, Willard, D. A
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Gottingen Copernicus GmbH 17-12-2015
Copernicus Publications
Subjects:
Basins
Biodiversity
Biogeography
Cenozoic
Climate
Climate change
Cretaceous
Drilling
Drills
Endangered & extinct species
Evolution
Evolutionary biology
Forests
Heart
Hydrology
Landscape
Landscape evolution
Navigation
Outcrops
Plant diversity
Plant evolution
Rainforests
Records
Rivers
Sedimentary basins
Sediments
Sediments (Geology)
Tropical environments
Uplift
South America
Brazil
Amazon Basin
Rio Negro
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Summary:This article presents the scientific rationale for an ambitious ICDP drilling project to continuously sample Late Cretaceous to modern sediment in four different sedimentary basins that transect the equatorial Amazon of Brazil, from the Andean foreland to the Atlantic Ocean. The goals of this project are to document the evolution of plant biodiversity in the Amazon forests and to relate biotic diversification to changes in the physical environment, including climate, tectonism, and the surface landscape. These goals require long sedimentary records from each of the major sedimentary basins across the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, which can only be obtained by drilling because of the scarcity of Cenozoic outcrops. The proposed drilling will provide the first long, nearly continuous regional records of the Cenozoic history of the forests, their plant diversity, and the associated changes in climate and environment. It also will address fundamental questions about landscape evolution, including the history of Andean uplift and erosion as recorded in Andean foreland basins and the development of west-to-east hydrologic continuity between the Andes, the Amazon lowlands, and the equatorial Atlantic. Because many modern rivers of the Amazon basin flow along the major axes of the old sedimentary basins, we plan to locate drill sites on the margin of large rivers and to access the targeted drill sites by navigation along these rivers.
ISSN:1816-3459
1816-8957
1816-3459
DOI:10.5194/sd-20-41-2015