NEOPLEISTOCENE STRATIGRAPHY AND PALEOGEOGRAPHY OF THE AMERASIAN ARCTIC OCEAN BASIN INFERRED FROM LITHOLOGICAL AND PALEONTOLOGICAL DATA

Lithological characteristics and fossil assemblages of planktic and benthic foraminifers, ostracods and macrobenthos/macroplankton were investigated with high resolution in sediment core KD12-03-10С retrieved from the water depth of 2200 m on the eastern Mendeleev Ridge slope. The downcore alternation of 8 peaks in the abundance of coarse-grained ice- and iceberg-rafted material (IRD) and several peaks in the abundance of planktic and benthic fossils, together with the changes in species composition and the presence of stratigraphically indicative species give evidence for temporally consistent sediment accumulation of the core sequence. This allowed estimating the age range of the sequence as the whole Neopleistocene and probably slightly older and establishing several interglacial, glacial and deglacial epochs. The reconstructed paleoenvironmental changes correspond to the growth and decay of continental ice sheets, variations in sea ice cover extent, progressive Neopleistocene cooling trend, decreasing connection with the Pacific Ocean and growing influence of the Atlantic Ocean.

paleogeography, stratigraphy, Neopleistocene, ice- and iceberg-rafting, foraminifers, ostracods, mollusks, marine isotope stages (MIS), the Mendeleev Ridge, the Arctic Ocean

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