Reworked Hantkenina Specimens at Little Stave Creek, Alabama: ABSTRACT

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Eocene-Oligocene boundary in Mississippi and Alabama has been traditionally placed between the Member of the Yazoo Formation and the overlying Red Bluff Formation (or its carbonate facies equivalent, the Bumpnose Formation). Consequently, the presence of Eocene planktonic foraminifers in the Red Bluff and Bumpnose has long been attributed to reworking. To test the validity of this hypothesis, samples were collected on both sides of the boundary from the upper Shubuta and Bumpnose units at Little Stave Creek, Alabama, and were examined for both calcareous nannofossil and planktonic foraminiferal content. The calcereous nannofossil assemblage, preserved in the matrix from inside handpicked specimens of Hantkenina from both units, was demonstrably older than the calcareous nannofossil assemblage from the surrounding sediment. Thus, at least some of the Hantkenina specimens in both the Shubuta and Bumpnose are indeed reworked, which not only confirms the original hypothesis regarding reworking within the Red Bluff and Bumpnose, but also indicates that the last occurrence of Hantkenina, the Shubuta-Bumpnose contact, and the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in the U.S. Gulf Coast may not be equivalent.