Site 1052 is the shallowest site in the Blake Nose depth transect. The site is presently at 1342.9 mbsl and is within the depth range of modern intermediate waters. The MCS seismic profile Line TD-5 suggests that the lower-to-middle Eocene interval is substantially thinner at Site 1052 than it is at deeper sites. Conversely, the upper Eocene was expected to be thicker here than at the down dip sites. Principal objectives were to extend the depth transect up the slope of Blake Nose to study Eocene intermediate water structure, as well as to recover a sequence of upper Eocene strata that could be used to improve the chronology of this interval. As part of these Eocene objectives, we hoped to recover a continuous upper Eocene section that might include debris from upper Eocene tektite strewn fields. In addition, the site was chosen to recover a thick Cretaceous section that was deposited at water depths as much as 1500 m shallower than those cored at Site 1049.

Cores from this site include a thick sequence of Danian and Maastrichtian strata that include a mostly complete K/T boundary sequence.

The K/T boundary is located between sections 2 and 3, but the details are missing because the core fell from the liner, and sections 1-3 were fished from the hole. Nevertheless, some burrows at the bottom of section 2 (see below) contained visible green spheroids, identical to those of 1049, to the K/T boundary must have been in the core!

Lithologic Unit III is characterized by an alternation of dark greenish gray lower-to-upper Paleocene calcareous claystones and lighter greenish gray nannofossils with clay, and the colors grade downhole into light greenish gray. The top of this unit is defined at the lowest occurrence of chert, but the nature of the contact is not known due to poor recovery. The base of the unit is the K/T boundary where color changes from more uniform light gray to variable, mostly olive, tones. All told, the Danian and early part of the late Paleocene are represented by nearly 100 m of section. Microfossils tend to be moderately preserved through most of the section, although preservation improves markedly in the early Danian. The lowest part of the Paleocene appears to include a small portion of the lowermost Danian planktonic foraminifer Zone Pa, but the boundary ejecta bed was not recovered. However, some green spherules and quartz grains occur within burrows in lowermost Paleocene sediment