Calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy of late Quaternary Arctic sediments

Abstract

Calcareous nannofossil assemblages of late Quaternary age have been investigated in short sediment cores from the eastern Arctic Ocean and the Norwegian Sea. The ages estimated in these cores are mainly based on calibration with northern North Atlantic reference material, where the first appearance of Emiliania huxleyi occurs in oxygen isotope stage 8 at 264,000 years B.P., and its sharp increase in relative abundance occurs in oxygen isotope stage 4 at 61,000 years B.P. Minor amounts of reworked Cretaceous and Tertiary specimens are present throughout the cores. Intervals where nannofossils occur in abundance represent warmer interstadial or interglacial conditions, whereas barren intervals represent glacial conditions. Holocene open water conditions are recognized by high frequencies of Coccolithus pelagicus. Sediment accumulation rates show considerable variation and range between 1 and 13 cm/ka.