The fabric of fine-grained sediments, cored during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 149 to the Iberia Abyssal Plain, was analyzed using the method of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility. The purposes of this study were to investigate downcore changes in magnetic fabric, and to determine paleocurrent direction. The general magnetic fabric analysis reveals an oblate shape, with K min axes perpendicular to the bedding plane, which is a typical sedimentary fabric.
Several cases show sharp changes at lithostratigraphic boundaries.
Poorly foliated intervals at Sites 897 and 898, where inclination of K min is not parallel to the bedding plane, probably resulted from postdepositional disturbance. These data suggest that turbidity currents originated from the eastern continental margin of Iberia during the middle Miocene to late Pleistocene.