Larger Foraminifer Biostratigraphy of PEACE Boreholes, Enewetak Atoll, Western Pacific Ocean. Geologic and Geophysical Investigations of Enewetak Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands

摘要

Larger foraminiferal assemblages, including Lepidocyclina orientalis, Miogypsina thecideaeformis, Miogypsinoides dehaartii, etc., and a smaller foraminifer, Austrotrillina striata, are used to correlate upper Oligocene and lower Miocene stra ta in the Pacific Atoll Exploration Program (PEACE) boreholes at Enewetak Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, western Pacific Ocean, with the Te and Tf zones of the previously established Tertiary Far East Letter Zonation. Correlation using these two benthic groups is critical because calcareous nannofossils and planktic foraminifers are absent in the lower Miocene strata. Biostratigraphic data from these boreholes delineate a thick (greater than 700 feet) sequence of upper Oligocene and lower Miocene strata corresponding to lower and upper Te zone. These strata document a major period of carbonate accumulation at Enewetak during the Late Oligocene and early Miocene (26 to 18 million years ago).