North Atlantic Late Miocene Stable-Isotope Stratigraphy, Biostratigraphy, and Magnetostratigraphy

Upper Miocene foraminiferal nannofossil ooze and chalk from DSDP Hole 552A in the northeast Atlantic Ocean have been closely sampled for biostratigraphic, paleomagnetic, and stable-isotopic studies. Sampling at 10-cm intervals resulted in an uppermost Miocene isotope stratigraphy with a 1000- to 3000-yr. resolution. Covariance in benthic (Planulina wuellerstorfi) and planktonic (Globigerina bulloides) foraminiferal δ^O¸ records is taken as evidence for variability in continental ice volume. Our best estimate is that glacial maxima occurred at ~ 5.0 and ~ 5.5 Ma and lasted no more than 20,000 yrs. These events probably lowered sea level by 60 m below the latest Miocene average. There is little oxygen-isotope evidence, however, for a prolonged glaciation during the last 2 m.y. of the late Miocene. High- and low-frequency variability in the δ^13C record of foraminifers is useful for correlation among North Atlantic DSDP Sites 408, 410, 522, 610, and 611, and for correlation with sites in other oceans. Similar δ^13C changes are seen in P. wuellerstorfi and G. bulloides, but the amplitude of the signal is always greater in G. bulloides. Variability in δ^13C common to both species probably reflects variability in the δ^13C of total CO2 in seawater. Major long-term features in the δ^13C record include a latest Miocene maximum (P. wuellerstorfi = 1.5‰) in paleomagnetic Chron 7, an abrupt decrease in δ^13C at -6.2 Ma, and a slight increase at -5.5 Ma. The decrease in δ^13C at -6.2 Ma, which has been paleomagnetically dated only twice before, occurs in the upper reversed part of Chronozone 6 at Holes 552A and 611C, in excellent agreement with earlier studies. Cycles in δ^13C with a period of ~ 104 yrs. are interpreted as changes in seawater chemistry, which may have resulted from orbitally induced variability in continental biomass. Samples of P. wuellerstorfi younger than 6 Ma from throughout the North Atlantic have δ^13C near 1‰, on average ~ 1‰ greater than samples of the same age in the Pacific Ocean. Thus, there is no evidence for cessation of North Atlantic Deep Water production resulting from the Messinian "salinity crisis." Biostratigraphic results indicate continuous sedimentation during the late Miocene after about -6.5 Ma at Hole 552A. Nannofossil biostratigraphy is complicated by the scarcity of low-latitude marker species, but middle and late Miocene Zones NN7 through NN11 are recognized. A hiatus is present at -6.5 Ma, on the basis of simultaneous first occurrences of Amaurolithusprimus, Amaurolithus delicatus, Amaurolithus amplificus, and Scyphosphaera globulata. The frequency and duration of older hiatuses increase downsection in Hole 552A, as suggested by calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy. Paleomagnetic results at Hole 552A indicate a systematic pattern of inclination changes. Chronozone 6 was readily identified because of its characteristic nannoflora (sequential occurrences of species assigned to the genus Amaurolithus) and the δ^13C decrease in foraminifers, but its lower reversed interval is condensed. Only the lower normal interval of Chronozone 5 was recognized at Hole 552A; the upper normal interval and the lowest Gilbert sediment are not recognized, owing to low intensity of magnetization and to coring disturbance. Interpreting magnetic reversals below Chronozone 6 was difficult because of hiatuses, but a lower normally magnetized interval is probably Chronozone 7. Correlation between DSDP Hole 552A and other North Atlantic sites is demonstrated using coiling direction changes in the planktonic foraminifer Neogloboquadrina. At most sites this genus changed its coiling preference from dominantly right to dominantly left during the late Miocene. At Hole 552A this event probably occurred about 7 m.y. ago. At the same time, P. wuellerstorfi had maximum δ^13C values. A similar δ^13C maximum and coiling change occurred together in Chron 7 at Hole 611C, and at Hole 610E. In sediment younger than -5.5 Ma, the coiling of small Neogloboquadrina species is random, but the larger species N. atlantica retains preferential left coiling

Paleogene time scale miscalibration: Evidence from the dating of the North Atlantic igneous province

Jolley et al. (2002) have proposed that the date of the Paleocene - Eocene thermal maximum is ca. 60 Ma, at least 5 m.y. older than currently estimated and, as a result, argue that the Paleogene time scale of Berggren et al. (1995) is grossly miscalibrated. The implications of this proposal are implausible, and we attribute the discrepancy in age noted by Jolley et al. (2002) to miscorrelation of the Staffa-type palynofloras and ambiguous isotopic dates from the North Atlantic igneous province

Subseries/Subepochs approved as a formal rank in the international stratigraphic guide

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Aubry, M., Head, M. J., Piller, W. E., & Berggren, W. A. Subseries/Subepochs approved as a formal rank in the international stratigraphic guide. Episodes, 43(4), (2020): 1041-1044, doi:10.18814/epiiugs/2020/020066.The International Subcommission on Stratigraphic Classification, as the constituent body of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) responsible for the International Stratigraphic Guide, has voted to include the subseries/ subepoch as a formal rank in the next edition of the Guide. This acknowledges the recent ratification of formal subseries and their corresponding stages for the Holocene Series/Epoch but allows individual subcommissions within ICS the freedom to decide whether or not to adopt this rank for their particular stratigraphic/time interval.We are grateful to the ISSC membership for discussions and to Secretary Jochen Erbacher for organizing the vote; to Mike Walker for sharing an unpublished manuscript with us; to the many colleagues who have expressed their support for formalization of subseries; and to Dennis Kent and an anonymous reviewer for their reviews of the manuscript

Oligocene-Miocene biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, and isotopic stratigraphy of the western North Atlantic

Magnetostratigraphic records from western North Atlantic Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Sites 563 and 558 are correlated with the geomagnetic polarity time scale (GPTS; Berggren et aI., 1984a, 1984b) using marine magnetic anomalies and selected biostratigraphic datum levels. The magnetochronology established is used to make direct magnetobiostratigraphic correlations that agree with previous Oligocene-early Miocene studies. However, we show that Zones NN8 partim and NN9 and associated Epoch 11 correlate with Magnetic Anomaly 5 (= Chron C5n). This contrasts with previous indirect correlations of Epoch 11 with Anomaly 5A and requires an upward adjustment of 1.5-2.0 m.y. for middle-late Miocene calcareous nannofossil zones. We correlate the middle/late Miocene boundary with Zone NN8 and earliest Chron C5n (10.4 Ma)

The Neogene and Quaternary : chronostratigraphic compromise or non-overlapping magisteria?

Author Posting. © Micropaleontology Press, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of Micropaleontology Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Stratigraphy 6 (2009): 1-16.The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) together with its subcommissions on Neogene Stratigraphy (SNS) and Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) are facing a persistent conundrum regarding the status of the Quaternary, and the implications for the Neogene System/Period and the Pleistocene Series/Epoch. The SQS, in seeking a formal role for the Quaternary in the standard time scale, has put forward reasons not only to truncate and redefine the Neogene in order to accommodate this unit as a third System/Period in the Cenozoic, but furthermore to shift the base of the Pleistocene to c. 2.6 Ma to conform to a new appreciation of when “Quaternary climates” began. The present authors, as members of SNS, support the well-established concept of a Neogene extending to the Recent, as well as the integrity of the Pleistocene according to its classical meaning, and have published arguments for workable options that avoid this conflict. In this paper, we return to the basic principles involved in the conversion of the essentially marine biostratigraphic/ biochronologic units of Lyell and other 19th-century stratigraphers into the modern hierarchical arrangement of chronostratigraphic units, embodied in the Global Standard Stratotype-section and Point (GSSP) formulation for boundary definitions. Seen in this light, an immediate problem arises from the fact that the Quaternary, either in its original sense as a state of consolidation or in the more common sense as a paleoclimatic entity, is conceptually different from a Lyellian unit, and that a Neogene/Quaternary boundary may therefore be a non sequitur. Secondly, as to retaining the base of the Pleistocene at 1.8 Ma, the basic hierarchical principles dictate that changing the boundary of any non-fundamental or “higher” chronostratigraphic unit is not possible without moving the boundary of its constituent fundamental unit. Therefore, to move the base of the Pleistocene, which is presently defined by the Calabrian GSSP at 1.8 Ma, to be identified with the Gelasian GSSP at 2.6 Ma, requires action to formally redefine the Gelasian as part of the Pleistocene. Finally, it is important to keep in mind that the subject under discussion is chronostratigraphy, not biostratigraphy. Both systems are based on the fossil record, but biostratigraphic units are created to subdivide and correlate stratigraphic sequences. The higher-level units of chronostratigraphy, however, were initially selected to reflect the history of life through geological time. The persistence of a characteristic biota in the face of environmental pressures during the last 23 my argues strongly for the concept of an undivided Neogene that extends to the present. Several ways to accommodate the Quaternary in the standard time scale can be envisaged that preserve the original concepts of the Neogene and Pleistocene. The option presently recommended by SNS, and most compatible with the SQS position, is to denominate the Quaternary as a subperiod/subsystem of the Neogene, decoupled from the Pleistocene so that its base can be identified with the Gelasian GSSP at c. 2.6 Ma. A second option is to retain strict hierarchy by restricting a Quaternary subperiod to the limits of the Pleistocene at 1.8 Ma. As a third option, the Quaternary could be a subera/suberathem or a supersystem/ superperiod, decoupled from the Neogene and thus with its base free to coincide with a convenient marker such as the base of the Pleistocene at 1.8 Ma, or to the Gelasian at 2.6 Ma, as opinions about paleoclimatology dictate. If no compromise can be reached within hierarchical chronostratigraphy, however, an alternative might be to consider Quaternary and Neogene as mutually exclusive categories (climatostratigraphic vs. chronostratigraphic) in historical geology. In this case, we would recommend the application of the principle of NOMA, or Non-Overlapping Magisteria, in the sense of the elegant essay by the late Stephen J. Gould (1999) on the mutually exclusive categories of Religion and Science. In this case the Quaternary would have its own independent status as a climatostratigraphic unit with its own subdivisions based on climatic criteria

Paleogene geochronology: An integrated approach

Geochronology is the conceptual division of continuous time as measured (geochronometry) by the progression in an ordinal series of events. This is best achieved by an approach which integrates four independent data sets: magnetostratigraphy, seafloor spreading magnetic lineation patterns, biostratigraphy, and isotopic ages. This integrated approach results in an ordinal framework which can measure time with greater resolution, though perhaps less accuracy, than a radiometric approach alone. A comparative analysis of two recently proposed Paleogene geochronologic time scales is presented