Marine Plio-Pleistocene of Iceland and problems of Its Correlation

• Published in: Quaternary Research
• Main Author: Gladenkov, Y.B.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1981
• Subjects: Red Crag; Tjörnes; Iceland; Serripes groenlandicus
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0033-5894(81)90111-3; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:0033589481901113?httpAccept=text/xml; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:0033589481901113?httpAccept=text/plain; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033589400015921

Abstract The marine Pliocene-Pleistocene sequence of Iceland contains four main assemblages of mollusks: (1) Venerupis rhomboides et al. , (2) Serripes groenlandicus et al. , (3) Portlandia arctica et al. , and (4) recent species. Analysis of the stratigraphic distribution of 100 species shows that the percentage of extinct species in the assemblages decreases from 40% in the oldest to 4–8% in the youngest. There is also a change from south boreal affinities in the oldest assemblage to north boreal in the youngest. The molluskan assemblages of Iceland can be correlated with Pliocene-Pleistocene assemblages of England and North Europe: (1) Coralline Crag, (2) Red Crag—lower part of the Icenian strata, (3) upper part of the Icenian-Cromerian strata. The upper boundaries of the Pliocene and Eopleistocene are defined by paleomagnetic data and radiological dating. The upper boundary of the Pliocene presumably should be established in the basalts lying between the Tjörnes and the Breidavik deposits by changes between the second and third mollusk assemblages and by the Gilsa paleomagnetic event.