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In situ foraminifera in grounding zone diamict: a working hypothesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2016

Philip J. Bart ,
Laura Coquereau ,
Sophie Warny  and
Wojciech Majewski
Philip J. Bart*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics and Museum of Natural Science, E235 Howe-Russell, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
Laura Coquereau
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics and Museum of Natural Science, E235 Howe-Russell, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA Department of Oceanography and Marine Environments, 4 Place Jussieu, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
Sophie Warny
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics and Museum of Natural Science, E235 Howe-Russell, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
Wojciech Majewski
Affiliation:
Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw, Poland
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

The ice-proximal diamict sediment deposited on the foreset of a grounding zone wedge in Glomar Challenger Basin on the eastern Ross Sea continental shelf yielded a low abundance assemblage of foraminifera at two piston core sites. We found 302 small well-preserved specimens representing 18 species of benthic foraminifera from 825 ml of sediment. Only three poorly preserved specimens of the planktonic foraminifera Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (sinistral) were found. Our combined analyses of preservation state, assemblage composition and stable isotopes suggest that the benthic foraminifera may be in situ. This possibility is of interest to palaeoclimatologists who use ice-proximal sediments on the Antarctic continental shelves to radiocarbon date the post-glacial retreat history.

Keywords

continental shelfgrounding zone wedgeice sheetLast Glacial MaximumRoss SeaWest Antarctica
Type
Physical Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , August 2016 , pp. 313 - 321
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Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 2016 

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