Site 1096 is located on a sedimentary drift on the continental rise off the northwestern Pacific margin of the Antarctic Peninsula (Fig. F1). Three holes were cored at this site in 3152 m water depth. Hole 1096A was piston cored to 140.7 mbsf, with 84.2% recovery. Hole 1096B was also piston cored to a depth of 260.6 mbsf, with 80.5% total recovery. Hole 1096C was both piston cored (409.9 m) and drilled (197.8 m) to a combined depth of 607.7 mbsf, with 84.2% recovery for both.
Sediments recovered are mainly fine-grained and terrigenous material, consistent with drift deposition, and divided into three depositional units. The detailed lithology is discussed in the "Site 1096" chapter of the Leg 178 Initial Reports volume (Shipboard Scientific Party, 1999b). The age of the sediments extend from the Holocene to early Pliocene at the base of Hole 1096C. Fossil preservation and abundance varies throughout Holes 1096A and 1096B (Table T2).
Site 1101 is located northeast of Site 1096, also on a hemipelagic sedimentary drift, in 3291.2 m water depth. One hole was attempted and cored at this site. Twenty-four cores were recovered (99.1% recovery), with a total depth of 217.7 mbsf. The sediments from Site 1101 contain a nearly continuous distal glacial record of the past 3.1 m.y. and can be divided into three lithostratigraphic units (Shipboard Scientific Party, 1999c). Calcareous nannofossils are observed in the upper two units, in laminated as well as massive sediments. Foraminifers are noted to be present below 53.3 mbsf, but nannofossils occur sporadically from the top of the hole to 121.1 mbsf. Hole 1101A extends to the late Pliocene, but nannofossils provide age correlation only within the Pleistocene. Preservation and abundance vary, with the majority of samples being poorly preserved with rare occurrences of species (Table T3).
Samples from Hole 1098C were also examined for calcareous nannofossils. We looked only at Hole 1098C, due to an almost total lack of calcareous nannofossils in this material.
Because of an observed increasing dissolution problem with sediment in storage over time (Osterman et al., Chap. 7, this volume), the samples examined were ones prepared aboard ship for a diatom study. Even with this precaution, there were only very rare sightings of nannofossils in the sediment. An Emiliana huxleyi specimen was observed in Section 178-1098C-1H-2, 20 cm, and a Calcidiscus leptoporus specimen in 178-1098C-4H-2, 100 cm. Thoracosphaera spp. fragments were the most common taxa observed, yet these were seen only rarely, at best. The possibility of examining original slides taken on cruises, as opposed to subsequent, later sampling of cores, should be strongly considered when reexamining older material from the higher southern latitudes for calcareous biogenic information.