The area was drilled from February 22 to March 1, 1975 by the ship Glomar Challenger before DSDP 368 was drilled. Its location was at 12°29.2'N and, 20°02.8'W and is located 370 km southwest of Dakar and 460 km southeast of Praia, Cape Verde and south of the Cape Verde Rise. The seabed is 4,768 meters deep. The drilling carried a total of 984.5 meters of sediment.
At the ocean floor and below consists of several layers including nannomarls (1), clays (2), multicolored silty clay (3), that level located 5,000 meters deep, below are black shales (4a and 4b) and nano-limestones (5a and 5b). Below is the oceanic crust composing basalt (7) just below around 5,800 metres deep.
The top part were formed during the Pleistocene and Miocene age, the second unit were formed during the Late Eocene age, the b subunit were also formed during the Late Paleocene age. The lower units were formed during the Valangian, Oxfordian and Kimmeridgian ages.
Early Aptian to Barremian: Globigerinelloides, Gubkinella, Hedbergella globigerinelloides, Hedbergella graysonensis, Hedbergella infracretacea and Hedbergella kugleri.
Lower Cretaceous: Dorothia praehauteriviana.
Late Jurassic period: Lenticulina, Nodosaria, Rhabdammina, Spirillina and Spirophthalmidium.
NN 18 and NN 13– Pleocene: Discoaster pentaradiatus, Discoaster surculusaund Discoaster tamalis.
NP 12 –Early Eocene: Coccolithus crassus and Discoaster lodoensis.
Late Cretaceous: Tetralithus obscurus
CC 9 – Cenomanian and Late Albian: Chiastozygus amphipons, Corollithion signum, Eiffellithus turriseiffelii, Lithastrinus floralis, Tetralithus obscurus and Vagalapilla matalosa.
CC 8 and CC 7 - Early Albian and Late Aptian: Lithastrinus floralis and Parhabdolithus angustus.
CC 6 – Barremian: Nannoconus colomii.
CC 3 and CC 4 - Hauterivian und Valanginian:Cruciellipsis cuvillieri and Diadorhombus rectus.
CC 1 – Berriasian: Cruciellipsis cuvillieri, Lithraphidites carniolensis and Nannoconus colomii.
NJ 17 – Tithonian: Parhabdolithus embergeri.
NJ 15 a and NJ 15 b – Kimmeridgian and Oxfordian: Callolithus martelae and Cyclagelosphaera margareli.
Unlike DSDP 368 which is located 550 km north in the Cape Verde Basin, the Upper Jurassic and the Lower Cretaceous sediments below the black shale of the oceanic crust are founded.[1]
^Ewing, J. I.; Hollister, C. D (1972). Regional aspects of deep sea drilling in the western North Atlantic, Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. Vol. 1. Washington: United States Government Printing Office. p. 951–973.