The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) drilled seven sites along the prograding carbonate margin of the western Great Bahama Bank to document the sedimentary record of Neogene sea-level changes (Eberli, Swart, Malone, et al., 1997). Five of these sites cover the upper to lower slope, the toe of the slope, and the basin and represent a continuation of the proximal Bahamas Drilling Project (BDP) sites Unda and Clino, which were drilled on the platform top (Fig. 1). The depth of these sites ranges from 200 to 700 to 1300 mbsf. Four different facies characterize the sediment along the Bahamas Transect:
Along this prograding carbonate margin, alternations consisting of more neritic and more pelagic carbonate sediments form the perennial background sedimentation into which the redeposited beds are intercalated. The facies and the distribution of the redeposited beds change from the slope to the basin. At the upper slope (Sites 1004 and 1005), the sedimentary packages contain bioclastic packstone to wackestone, pelagic intervals, some siliciclastic layers, and organic material but very few redeposited beds (Eberli, Swart, Malone, et al., 1997). On the lower slope and at the toe of the slope (Sites 1003 and 1007), intercalations of carbonates with mass gravity flow deposits, such as turbidites, slumps, and debris flow units, are common. The position of these deposits shows that most mass gravity flows bypassed the upper slope and were deposited at the break of the slope. In the basin axis (Site 1006), a thick package of current deposits consists of small-scale alternations of more platform-derived material and more pelagic sediments similar to the background sedimentation on the slope but no turbidites (Eberli, Swart, Malone, et al., 1997).