The authigenic minerals contained in the altered basal intervals of volcaniclastic sediments from Sites 447 and 450 of Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 59 are dioctahedral smectite (with variable crystallinity), phillipsite, and sanidine. Sanidine seems the most widespread and common product of basal alteration in the Philippine Sea marginal basins.The neomorphic mineral suites may have been produced by (1) halmyrolisis of the volcaniclastic sediments; (2) halmyrolisis of the underlying basalts; or (3) hydrothermalism associated with basaltic intrusions.At Site 450, other authigenic minerals occur (carbonates, analcime, clinoptilolite, Fe-Mn oxides), and the basal paragenesis is consistent with a hydro thermal origin. Such a process could have produced temperatures up to 200 °C in the tuffs lying as much as 2 meters above the contact with a basaltic intrusion. Products of low-temperature alteration, however, are also present in the altered interval of this site.

• = absence, + = presence, + + = relative abundance.

Supplement to: Sartori, Renzo; Tomadin, Luciano (1981): Mineralogy of altered basal volcaniclastic sediments at Sites 447 (West Philippine Basin) and 450 (Parece Vela Basin), Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 59. In: Kroenke, L; Scott, R; et al. (eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (U.S. Govt. Printing Office), 59, 615-620