Calcareous Nannoplankton as Paleoceanographic and Biostratigraphic Proxies: Examples from the Mid-Cretaceous Equatorial Atlantic (ODP Leg 207) and Pleistocene of the Antarctic Peninsula (NBP0602A) and North Atlantic (IODP Exp. 306)

• Other Authors: Kulhanek, Denise Kay (authoraut), Wise, Sherwood W. (professor directing dissertation), Froelich, Philip N. (outside committee member), Parker, William C. (committee member), Wang, Yang (committee member), Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution)
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University 2009
• Subjects: Earth sciences; Geology; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Weddell Sea; Weddell; Antarc*; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu%3A254117/datastream/TN/view/Calcareous%20Nannoplankton%20as%20Paleoceanographic%20and%20Biostratigraphic%20Proxies.jpg

This dissertation is a collection of three projects utilizing calcareous nannoplankton as biostratigraphic and paleoceanographic indicators. The materials studied come from three locations: 1) Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 207 (Site 1258) on Demerara Rise; 2) SHALDRIL II Cruise NBP0602A (Site 9) in the James Ross Basin, Western Weddell Sea; and 3) Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 306 (Site U1313) in the North Atlantic. After an introductory chapter, Chapter 2 details the results from Site 1258, drilled during ODP Leg 207 on Demerara Rise off the northern coast of South America. This cruise recovered organic-rich Albian sediments that contain abundant, moderately to well preserved calcareous nannofossils. Biostratigraphic analysis shows the section primarily spans Roth's (1978) middle to late Albian Zone NC9. An unconformity separates these sediments from overlying uppermost Albian laminated shales from Zone NC10. The presence of Seribiscutum primitivum within the Albian section represents the first known occurrences of this species at such low latitudes, as Demerara Rise was located within 15º of the equator during the mid-Cretaceous. This species exhibits a bipolar distribution and is considered a cool-water, high-latitude species. Its presence on Demerara Rise indicates cooler water incursions either through changes in surface circulation or upwelling conditions during the opening of the Equatorial Atlantic. Chapter 3 details the results of a study of calcareous nannofossils in clasts obtained during the SHALDRIL II NBP0602A cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula. Site NBP0602A-9, drilled during the SHALDRIL II cruise of the RV/IB Nathaniel B. Palmer, includes two holes located in the northern James Ross Basin in the western Weddell Sea, very close to the eastern margin of the Antarctic Peninsula. Sediment from both holes consists of very dark grey, pebbly, sandy mud, grading to very dark greenish grey, pebbly, silty mud in the lower 2.5 m of the second hole. In addition to abundant pebbles ...