Pleistocene stratigraphy in the Devils Hole Area,Central North Sea: Foraminiferal and amino-acid evidence |
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| Authors: | Karen Luise Knudsen Hans Petter Sejrup |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Árhus C, Denmark;2. Department of Geology, Section B, University of Bergen, Allégt. 41, N-5007 Bergen, Norway |
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| Abstract: | A detailed study of the foraminiferal assemblages from the 229.1-m-deep core 81/34 in the central North Sea has been combined with a series of measurements of the isoleucine epimerisation of foraminiferal tests. A total of 17 foraminiferal zones have been established and both the faunal compositions and the amino-acid values suggest that a major part of the sequence represents deposits of early and middle Pleistocene age. Only the uppermost zone is referred to the late Pleistocene. The sequence mainly comprises a series of marine zones from cold periods, but with some barren, possibly non-marine intervals in between. Only two of the foraminiferal zones can be referred to interglacial periods. The oldest one of these, defined here as the Devils Hole Interglacial, may belong to the latter part of the Cromerian Complex, while the upper warm interval is correlated with the Holsteinian of northwest Europe on the basis of its amino-acid values. A detailed stratigraphical correlation between core 81/34 and the neighbouring core 81/29 is suggested on the basis of their foraminiferal content, palaeomagnetic evidence and amino-acid measurements from both cores. A characteristic feature of both sequences is that most of the Quaternary record is missing. Similar episodic patterns of deposition and erosion have been reported previously from the North Sea area. |
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| Keywords: | North Sea Pleistocene benthic Foraminifera amino-acid stratigraphy |
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