Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-01T21:11:12.409Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Middle Miocene planktonic microfossils and lower bathyal foraminifera from offshore southern California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2016

Ted F. W. Bergen ,
Joanne Sblendorio-Levy ,
John T. Twining  and
Richard E. Casey
Ted F. W. Bergen
Affiliation:
1Shell Oil Company, P.O. Box 481, Houston, Texas 77001
Joanne Sblendorio-Levy
Affiliation:
1Shell Oil Company, P.O. Box 481, Houston, Texas 77001
John T. Twining
Affiliation:
1Shell Oil Company, P.O. Box 481, Houston, Texas 77001
Richard E. Casey
Affiliation:
2Marine Studies Program, University of San Diego, San Diego, California 92110
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Lower bathyal sediments representing portions of the Luisian and Mohnian stages of Kleinpell (1938) occur on a submarine ridge near Tanner Bank, offshore southern California. The presence of abundant and well-preserved calcareous nannofossils, diatoms, silicoflagellates, radiolarians and foraminifera allows accurate correlations with the onshore type sections of these stages. In terms of the calcareous nannofossil zones, the age range is from the Sphenolithus heteromorphus Zone to the Discoaster kugleri Zone. Although abundant benthic foraminifera indicative of the Luisian and Mohnian are present, they are accompanied by species more characteristic of the Pliocene Repettian Stage of Natland (1952) and the Pliocene-Miocene “Delmontian” Stage of Kleinpell (1938). Many of these latter species live today at lower bathyal depths (below 2,000 m), others occur in lower bathyal sediments as old as Oligocene, but are absent in the onshore type sections of the Luisian and Mohnian stages in coastal California. We ascribe their absence in onshore sequences to deposition at middle bathyal depths. The known chronostratigraphic ranges of several species are extended and five new species and two new subspecies of benthic foraminifera are described.

The following new taxa are described: Bolivina pelita n. sp., Cassidulinella inflata n. sp., Globocassidulina undulata n. sp., Cibicidoides mckannai miocenicus n. subsp., C. mckannai sigmosuturalis n. subsp., Pullenia fragilis n. sp., Parafissurina inornata n. sp.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , March 1986 , pp. 249 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnal, R. E. 1984. The Mohnian–Luisian boundary in the Coccolithus miopelagicus subzone, with new and related species of foraminifers. Journal of Foraminiferal Research, 14:1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldauf, J. G. and Barron, J. A. 1982. Diatom biostratigraphy and paleoecology of the type section of the Luisian Stage, central California. Micropaleontology, 28:59–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barron, J. A. 1976. Revised Miocene and Pliocene diatom biostratigraphy of upper Newport Bay, Newport Beach, California. Marine Micropaleontology, 1:27–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barron, J. A. 1980. Lower Miocene to Quaternary diatom biostratigraphy of DSDP Leg 57, off northeastern Japan, p. 641–686. In Scientific Party, Initial Reports DSDP 56, 57, Pt. 2, Washington (U.S. Govt. Printing Office).Google Scholar
Blake, G. H. 1981. Biostratigraphic relationship of Neogene benthic foraminifera from the southern California outer continental borderland to the Monterey Formation, p. 1–14. In Garrison, R. E. et al. (eds.), The Monterey Formation and Related Siliceous Rocks of California. Pacific Section, Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Blake, G. H. and Douglas, R. G. 1980. Pleistocene occurrence of Melonis pompilioides in the California Borderland and its implication for foraminiferal paleoecology. Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research, Special Publication No. 19:59–67.Google Scholar
Blow, W. H. 1979. The Cainozoic Globigerinida, Part I. E. J. Brill, Leiden, 222 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bukry, D. 1981. Synthesis of silicoflagellate stratigraphy for Maestrichtian to Quaternary marine sediment, p. 433–444. In Warme, J. E., Douglas, R. G. and Winterer, E. L. (eds.), The Deep Sea Drilling Project: A Decade of Progress. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Special Publication No. 32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casey, R. E. et al. 1979. Radiolarian ecology and the development of the radiolarian component in Holocene sediments, Gulf of Mexico and adjacent seas with potential paleontological applications, p. 228–237. In Freed, R. L. (ed.), Transactions Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies, 23.Google Scholar
Hickey, B.M. 1979. The California Current System—hypotheses and facts. Progress in Oceanography, 8:191–279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kin'dyushev, V. I. 1970. Seasonal variations of water masses in the California region of the Pacific Ocean. Oceanology, 10(4):456–464.Google Scholar
Kleinpell, R. M. 1938. Miocene Stratigraphy of California. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, 450 p.Google Scholar
Koizumi, I. 1975. Late Cenozoic diatom biostratigraphy in the circum-North Pacific region. Geological Society of Japan Journal, 81(10):611–627.Google Scholar
Lipps, J. H. 1964. Miocene planktonic foraminifera from Newport Bay, California. Tulane Studies in Geology, 2:109–133.Google Scholar
Martini, E. 1971. Standard Tertiary and Quaternary calcareous nannoplankton zonation. Proceeding of Second Planktonic Conference 2:739–785.Google Scholar
Miller, P. L. 1981. Tertiary calcareous nannoplankton and benthic foraminifera biostratigraphy of the Point Arena area, California. Micropaleontology, 27:419–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Natland, M. L. 1952. Pleistocene and Pliocene Stratigraphy of Southern California. Unpubl. Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 165 p.Google Scholar
Poore, R. Z. et al. 1981. Microfossil biostratigraphy and biochronology of the type Relizian and Luisian stages of California, p. 15–42. In Garrison, R. E. et al. (eds.), The Monterey Formation and Related Siliceous Rocks of California. Pacific Section, Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Phillips, F. Jay, Welton, Bruce and Welton, Joann. 1976. Paleontologic studies of the Middle Tertiary Skooner Gulch and Gallaway formations at Point Arena, California, p. 137–154. In Eugene Fritsche, A. et al. (eds.), The Neogene Symposium. Pacific Section Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Riedel, W. R. and Sanfilippo, A. 1978. Stratigraphy and evolution of tropical Cenozoic radiolarians. Micropaleontology, 23:61–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Theyer, F., Mato, C. Y. and Hammond, S. R. 1978. Paleomagnetic and geochronologic calibration of latest Oligocene to Pliocene radiolarian events, equatorial Pacific. Marine Micropaleontology, 3:377–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, F. M., Casey, R. E. and Perez, A. M. 1981. Stratigraphic and paleoceanographic significance of early Pliocene to middle Miocene radiolarian assemblages from northern to Baja California, p. 71–86. In Garrison, R. E. et al. (eds.), The Monterey Formation and Related Siliceous Rocks of California. Pacific Section, Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Yeats, R. S., Haq, B. U. and Pisciotto, K. A. 1981. Introduction and explanatory notes, p. 1–22. In Yeats, R. S. et al., Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, 63.Google Scholar