PALYNOLOGICAL, FORAMINIFERAL AND AMINOSTRATIGRAPHIC STUDIES OF QUATERNARY SEDIMENTS FROM THE US MIDDLE ATLANTIC UPPER CONTINENTAL-SLOPE, CONTINENTAL-SHELF AND COASTAL-PLAIN

A pollen climate index curve provides the basic stratigraphic subdivision of the 305 m cored Quaternary section of AMCOR 6021C located on the upper continental slope off New Jersey, U.S.A. Cold and warm intervals from top to bottom were assigned to Marine Oxygen Isotope Stages 1 through 13(?). At a sub-bottom depth of about 220 m, foraminiferal data indicate a possible hiatus, and, if so, sediments below this may be as old as Isotope Stage 16 or older. Aminostratigraphic studies yielded results that are consistent with either interpretation. Benthic foraminifers are dominated by Elphidium excavatum and Islandiella norcrossi. The planktic foraminiferal record provided no independent means of subdividing the section. The stratigraphic distribution in 6021C of six species of and Quercus (oak) and aminozone determinations were applied to dating, in terms of presumed Oxygen Isotope Stages, of other offshore core hole samples and some onshore Quaternary deposits of Delaware. Stratigraphic information from AMCOR sites 6021 and 6009 correlated to seismic reflection profiles that cross the shelf/slope break indicate that the thickest accumulations of terrigenous Quaternary sediments are located along the outer continental shelf/upper continental slope offshore the northeastern United States.