We consider the detailed stratigraphy of Hole 735B in "Appendix A," based on combining all available analyses of rocks from the hole into one table, "Appendix B." This table is available in Excel format in the volume "Supplementary Materials." Full citations to data sources are given there. All data including determinations of major oxides, trace elements, rare earth elements, and isotopes are included. In constructing the stratigraphy, however, we used mainly the major oxides and some trace elements. Most of these were determined by XRF techniques, but some of the trace element data sets were measured using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Procedures and calibrations to standards are given in the separate contributions to this volume and prior publications cited in "Appendix B." We made no attempt to correct the full data set internally to a standard measured in common but for our plotting parameters found, in general, that trends existing in one data set for a given portion of core were well duplicated by those in others.
A core as complicated as that of Hole 735B and upon which so much data has been collected cannot be presented in a simple way. Also, the details of our stratigraphy and their justification may be of little interest to many readers. This is why we have placed the bulk of this material and the corresponding figures in "Appendix A." There, justification of our revised stratigraphy and reasons for modifications to the original shipboard stratigraphy are provided. In the following, we consider only those conventions and other matters pertinent to the general stratigraphy, which we illustrate with representative figures. "Appendix A" also provides a comparison to nearby Hole 1105A, drilled during ODP Leg 179 (Pettigrew, Casey, Miller, et al., 1999) and to gabbros obtained during a near-bottom postcruise survey of the entire summit of Atlantis Bank (Coogan et al., 2001). This is to place Hole 735B in the larger context of the body of work done thus far in the vicinity.
To begin, we take up a summary lithologic description of the core and follow this with the chemical stratigraphy.