Faunal analysis of Neogene planktonic foraminifera from forearc sediments of the Japan Trench, ODP Site 1151, Leg 186

• Published in: The Island Arc
• Main Author: Hayashi, Hiroki
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2004
• Subjects: Pacific; Planktonic foraminifera
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1738.2003.00428.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1440-1738.2003.00428.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1440-1738.2003.00428.x

Abstract The present paper describes the general outline of Neogene paleoceanographic changes in the northwestern Pacific by means of planktonic foraminiferal assemblages. Planktonic foraminiferal fossils occur commonly in the upper Miocene to lower Pleistocene sediments of Hole 1151A, Ocean Drilling Program Leg 186 in the forearc basin off northeast Japan, with the exception of 11 barren intervals. These barren intervals are explained as a result of dissolution under organic decomposing processes. Three assemblages of planktonic foraminifers were identified by Q‐mode cluster analysis. The succession of the assemblages can be divided into four paleoceanographic stages: (i) warm‐temperate Tortonian; (ii) cold‐temperate Messinian to lower Pliocene; (iii) warm climatic optimum in the middle part of the Pliocene; and (iv) strong glacial–interglacial oscillation of the upper Pliocene to the lower Pleistocene. Three short warming events—namely, the late Miocene climatic optimum 3, the Miocene–Pliocene boundary and the middle Pliocene events—and a short cooling event of the late Miocene could be determined in the studied section of Site 1151.