There was no core recovery within an inferred sand-rich interval from 67.43 to 143.70 mbsf. This facies change represents a gradual shift from the outer trench wedge environment to the uppermost Shikoku Basin. The base of Unit III has not been intersected yet. Horizontally bedded sediments, fissile in places, occupy Site 1174 down to 200 mbsf, at which depth deformation bands first appear. For about 100 meters below this deformation bands are common, varying in appearance and orientation but defining two sets with a conjugate geometry, the lower dihedral angle being approximately symmetric about vertical.
Bedding is horizontal to gently inclined.
Deformation bands are virtually absent below this sheared interval, which approximately coincides with the change from axial to outer wedge turbidites. This localization of the deformation bands may therefore be due to early tectonic strain being concentrated in the fault hangingwall, to lithological control, or some combination of the two. A 10 meter-thick zone centered around 470 mbsf shows abruptly steepened and fractured bedding, with intact, mainly horizontal beds above and below, and may mark a further interval of thrusting. Calcareous nannofossils from all core-catcher samples of Holes 1174A and 1174B have been examined for biostratigraphy. Nannofossils are common and mostly moderately preserved.