Sites 1078 and 1079, cored in the Bight of Angola, sampled an apparently continuous late Pleistocene record of predominantly terrigenous origin. The calcareous nannofossil-derived biostratigraphy suggests that the deeper Site 1079 terminated at ~0.7 Ma (maximum penetration: 128 mbsf), whereas the shallower Site 1078 (maximum penetration: 165 mbsf) did not reach sediments older than ~0.35 Ma (Fig. 1).
Sediments younger than 0.26 Ma accumulated at a record rate compared with those recovered from other Leg 175 sites, reaching 60 cm/k.y. at Site 1078. Siliceous microfossils were only sporadically present within two short laminated organic-rich intervals and were therefore of limited stratigraphic interest.