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Science 15 June 1979:
Vol. 204. no. 4398, pp. 1196 - 1199
DOI: 10.1126/science.204.4398.1196
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Articles

Application of Carbon Isotope Stratigraphy to Late Miocene Shallow Marine Sediments, New Zealand

TOM S. LOUTIT 1 and JAMES P. KENNETT 1

1 Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Kingston 02881

A distinct (0.5 per mil) carbon-13/carbon-12 isotopic shift in the light direction has been identified in a shallow marine sedimentary sequence of Late Miocene age at Blind River, New Zealand, and correlated with a similar shift in Late Miocene Deep Sea Drilling Project sequences throughout the Indo-Pacific. A dated piston core provides an age for the shift of 6.2 ± 0.1 million years. Correlations based on the carbon isotopic change require a revision of the previously established magnetostratigraphy at Blind River. The carbon shift at Blind River occurs between 6.2 and 6.3 ± 0.1 million years before present. A new chronology provides an age for the evolutionary first appearance datum of Globorotalia conomiozea at 6.1 ± 0.1 million years, the beginning of a distinct latest Miocene cooling event associated with the Kapitean stage at 6.2 ± 0.1 million years, and the beginning of a distinct shallowing of water depths at 6.1 ± 0.1 million years. The Miocene-Pliocene boundary as recognized in New Zealand is now dated at 5.3 ± 0.1 million years. Extension of carbon isotope stratigraphy to other shallow Late Miocene sequences should provide an important datum for international correlation of Late Miocene shallow and deep marine sequences.

Submitted on January 25, 1979
Revised on March 8, 1979


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Neogene: Part 2 Neogene geochronology and chronostratigraphy.
W. A. Berggren, D. V. Kent, and J. A. van Couvering (1985)
Geological Society, London, Memoirs 10, 211-260
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)