Geochemical Peculiarities of the Pacific Pleistocene Sediments

In the geochemical review based on records from cruises of International project of Deep-Sea Drilling and other literature data concerning main lithologic types of the Pacific Pleistocene sediments we presented tables of average arithmetic chemical composition, meanweighted chemical composition, accumulation rates, and mass accumulation rates of chemical components. These tables can be used for comparative analysis with sediments of the same or other stratons in different oceanic basins and also with paleooceanic sediments on the continents. Terrigenous matrix dominates within lithogenic matter. We discovered a close resemblance between chemical composition of hemipelagic clays and volcanic sediments. Peculiarities of hydrothermal sediments are described. Using methods of mathematical statistics, we revealed main geochemical associations and principal factors determinating the chemical composition of studied sediments. Masses of oxides of petrogenic elements and a number of trace elements have been calculated for Pleistocene sediments. We managed to take an idea about average chemical composition of the Pacific Pleistocene.