Long-term records of neodymium (Nd) isotopes from sedimentary archives can be influenced by both changes in water mass mixing and continental weathering. Results of Nd isotopic analyses of fossil fish teeth from ODP Site 689 (Maud Rise, Southern Ocean) provide a long, continuous, high-resolution marine sediment Nd isotope record (expressed in epsilon-Nd units). Correlation of down core secular variations between the epsilon-Nd record, delta13C values from benthic foraminifera, and clay mineral assemblages demonstrates that long-term variability of Nd isotope ratios reflect changes in ocean circulation, and that only minor fluctuations in epsilon-Nd values are associated with changes in continental weathering on Antarctica. Nonradiogenic epsilon-Nd values at Site 689 during the middle Eocene require the contribution of an end member with epsilon-Nd 125 µm

Supplement to: Scher, Howie D; Martin, Ellen E (2004): Circulation in the Southern Ocean during the Paleogene inferred from neodymium isotopes. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 228(3-4), 391-405