Stratigraphic Correlation of Pleistocene California Borderland Marine Carbonate Using Strontium Isotopes: ABSTRACT

Abstract

High-precision measurements on carbonate sediments have refined the history of the {sup 87}Sr/{sup 86}Sr ratio in Pleistocene seawater and allowed them to construct a standard {sup 87}Sr/{sup 86}Sr vs. age curve, which the authors have applied to stratigraphic correlations in the California Borderland basins. Foraminifera-nannofossil ooze samples from DSDP (Deep Sea Drilling Project) Site 590 in the Tasman Sea (31{degree}S) were analyzed for {sup 87}Sr/{sup 86}Sr to determine the Sr isotopic ratio of ocean water over the past 2.5 m.y. Modeling suggests that changes in river input associated with large variations in global chemical weathering rates are responsible for the observed variations in the {sup 87}Sr/{sup 86}Sr record during the Pliocene-Pleistocene. From 2.4 m.y. to 0.3 m.y., the {sup 87}Sr/{sup 86}Sr ratio of seawater increased rapidly by 14 {times} 10{sup {minus}5}, which makes this period ideal for high-resolution correlations using the Sr isotope method. Based on their standard seawater curve, strontium isotope analyses of macrofossils and foraminifera from carbonate sections from the Santa Barbara-Ventura and Los Angeles basins indicate that the Bathhouse Beach section of the Santa Barbara Formation was deposited between 0.9 and 0.4 m.y. ago, and in part is syndepositional with western portions of the nearly Pliocene-Middle Pleistocenemore » Pico Formation of the Ventura basin, and with the lithologically similar Lomita Marl of the San Pedro Formation at Palos Verdes.« less