Site 1140 provided a lower Oligocene to middle Miocene record of diatoms from the northernmost Kerguelen Plateau. Samples were prepared and analyzed to provide a more detailed analysis of diatom distributions than that carried out by shipboard scientists (Shipboard Scientific Party, 2000b). The material is complementary to that recovered during ODP Legs 119 and 120, and the biostratigraphic zonation of Harwood and Maruyama (1992) was readily applied to the material analyzed. Low core recovery (5%) or a possible disconformity prevented the recognition of the A. ingens var. nodus, N. grossepunctata, and A. ingens-D. maccollumii zones and limited the C. kanayae Zone (spanning ~1 m.y.) to only two samples. Linear sedimentation rates average 1.26 cm/k.y. through the studied interval, indicating low oceanic sedimentation rates.