FORAMINIFERAL STRATIGRAPHY, PALEOENVIRONMENTS AND SEDIMENTATION OF THE GLACIGENIC SEQUENCE SOUTHWEST OF BJORNOYA

Based on four shallow drillings in the outer part of the Bjomoya troug h, palaeoenvironments of foraminifera in glacigenic sediments are disc ussed. Different methods were used; detailed foraminiferal analysis, o xygen and carbon stable isotope analysis and transfer functions. Six d ifferent foraminiferal assemblage zones were found. One zone, AA, appe ars to be pre-Pleistocene in age and contains an abundance of reworked early Tertiary foraminifera. Four of the assemblage zones have a domi nant arctic foraminiferal content; however, a marked boreal input is e vident, particularly in zone B where B. marginata dominates. We sugges t that B. marginata has been resedimented from pre-Eemian 'warm' depos its. Its occurrence in these older warm intervals possibly reflects a lower input of the Norwegian Current into the area and possibly an inc rease in the relative nutrient content of the water masses. The six zo nes have also differing numbers of foram./gram sediment. An assemblage zone where a boreal component of foraminifera (E. nipponica, P. bullo ides) dominates was found, zone C. We define this particular assemblag e zone to be of Eemian age (isotope substage 5e). The foraminiferal as semblage composition and the oxygen and carbon isotopes from zone C in dicate that oceanographic conditions in the Barents Sea during the Eem ian were slightly different from those of the present and that, possib ly, Atlantic waters were more prevalent.