PALEOCENE-EOCENE BOUNDARY

SEDIMEI\JTA-rION II\J THE

POTOMAC RIVER VALLEY,
VIRGINIA Af\lD MARYLAND

I.G.C.P. PROJECT 308

FIELD TRIP GUIDEBOOK

THOMAS G. GIBSON AND LAUREL M. BYBELL, LEADERS

OCTOBER 31, 1991

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Paleocene and Eocene strata of the central Atlantic Coastal Plain by Thomas G.
Gibson. Laurel M. Bybell. and David L. Govoni ... . ......... . ........... 1

Calcareous nannofossils and foraminifers from Paleocene and Eocene strata in

Maryland and Virginia by Laurel M. Bybell and Thomas G. Gibson . . . . . . . .. 15

Lower Ternary (Pamunkey Group) dinoflagellate biostratigraphy. Potomac River area,

Virginia and Maryland by Lucy E. Edwards, David K Goodman, and Roger J.
Witmer ........ .... ......... .. ... . .......... . . . ... .. ........ .. 31

Dinoflagellate biostratigraphy of the Nanjemoy Formation at Popes Creek,

southeastern Maryland by David K Goodman ............... .. ..... .. . 47

Lower Tertiary pollen biostratigraphy. Maryland and Virginia by Norman O.

Frederiksen . .... . ....... . ......... . .. . .......... . .......... . . . 57

Composition and biogeographic significance of the gastropod mollusk fauna of the

Brightseat Formation (Paleocene: Danian) of Maryland by David L. Govoni
.. .. . ....... . .... . ......... .. .... . ..... . . . .... . ... . .......... 63

Potomac River Paleocene and Eocene Stop Descriptions by Thomas G. Gibson and
Laurel M. Bybell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

1
Paleocene and Eocene strata of the central Atlantic Coastal Plain
By Thomas G. Gibson, Laurel M. Bybell, and David L. Govoru
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA 22092
REGIONAL SE'ITING
Sedimentary deposits of Paleocene and
Eocene age crop out near the inner
(western) margin of the Atlantic Coastal
Plain from New Jersey to Georgia. In the
Potomac River Valley in Maryland and
Virginia, these deposits are exposed a
short distance to the east of the ''Fall Line"
(fig. 1). This line marks the inner margin
of the preserved onlap of Cretaceous and
Cenozoic sedimentary rocks of the Atlantic
Coastal Plain Province onto the
Precambrian and early Paleozoic
crystalline rocks and early Mesozoic
sedimentary and igneous rocks of the
Piedmont Province that lie at the exposed
edge of the continental craton.
In the Chesapeake Bay region, the
basement complex upon which the
Cretaceous and Cenozoic units rest is
downwarped into a shallow, east-
southeastward plunging, eastwardly open-
ended basin known as the Salisbury
Embayment (Richards, 1948) or the
Chesapeake-Delaware Embayment
(Murray, 1961). The Salisbury
Embayment is bounded on the north and
south by basement structural highs known
respectively as the South Jersey High and
the Norfolk Arch. Hansen (1978)
postulated that the position and extent of
downwarping within the Salisbury
Embaymen t is con trolled by an underlying
Triassic rift basin system that delimits a
zone of crustal weakness. The Atlantic
Coastal Plain contains a series of these
down warped areas, usually termed
1
embayments, and structural highs, termed
highs or arches (fig. 2).
Willow Landing, the starting point for
the field trip (fig. 1), is located a short
distance east of the Fall Line in the west-
central part of the Salisbury Embayment.
The strata that we will see in detail on the
field trip are representative of Paleocene
and Eocene sediments in the southern and
central parts of the Salisbury Embayment.
In addition to the Paleocene and
Eocene sequences that crop out in the
western part of the Coastal Plain (fig. 3),
there are some sedimentary sequences that
are preserved only in subsurface sections
in coreholes in more downbasin areas to
the east of the outcrop belt. The middle
Eocene Piney Point Formation and the
upper Eocene Chickahommy Formation do
not crop out in the Potomac River Valley;
they occur only in the subsurface of the
lower Potomac River Valley. Originally,
these units must have been present in the
outcrop area that we will visit, but they
were completely removed by an extensive
period of erosion during the Oligocene.
The Paleocene and Eocene deposits in
the Potomac River Valley are composed
mainly of clayey and silty, very fine to fine-
grained sand. The sediments contain
abundant glauconite, which may exceed 50
percent of the sand-sized fraction. The
total thickness of the outcropping
glauconitic serumen ts in the Potomac River
Valley is about 200 feet, and they
represent all or parts of nine calcareous
nannofossil zoneg (Bybell and Gibson, thiB
guidebook). The long period of time
represented by this relatively thin
 SOUTH JERSEY HIG
a PENNSYLVANIA ----""""'"
40

FIELD
TRIP
AREA

VIRGINIA

Western Limit of ---..... J

Coastal Plain

NOR-rH CAROLINA
I ,
I 1
80 160
KILOMETERS

Figure 1. Map of central Atlantic Coastal Plain, showing field trip

area in west-central part of Salisbury Embayment. Continuous
coreholes are 1) GL 913, 915, 916, and 917, 2) Clayton, 3)
Solomon's Island, 4) Waldorf, 5) Oak Grove, 6) Putney Mill, 7)
Dismal Swamp, 8) Gates County 163, and 9) Valhalla.
Modified from Gibson (1983).

2
sedimentary column of shallow marine
deposits suggests that numerous diastems
and/or thin sequences occur. The presence
of thin columns of glauconitic sediments in
the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene of
southern Maryland and Virginia also
indicates that low sedimentation rates
prevailed throughout this region during
the Paleogene. The dominance of biogenic
and biochemical sedimentation in the
lower Miocene section in the Salisbury and
Albemarle Embayroents (Gibson, 1983)
suggests that this low sedimentation rate
persisted into the early or early middle
Miocene, and that it was due to low influx
of clastic debriB. The renewed uplift of the
Appalachians to the west in the early to
middle Miocene resulted in a large influx
of coarse clastic material eastward onto the
Atlantic Coastal Plain (Gibson, 1970;
McCartan, 1989).
Even including both surface and
subsurface sequences, the Paleocene and
Eocene sedimentary record that is
preserved in the west-central Salisbury
Embayment of Maryland and Virginia is
far less complete than the sedimentary
record that is preserved in New Jersey or
in the Gulf Coastal Plain. Though most of
the marine sedimentary sequences of the
Gulf Coaatru Plain also are represented in
Maryland and Virginia (see Bybell and
Gibson, this guidebook, fig. 2), they are
much thinner here. In contrast to the Gulf
Coast, where thick, fluvial to marginal-
marine sediments are present in some of
the sedimentary sequences. such sequences
are absent in Maryland and Virginia.
Large-scale erosion of sediments,
particularly of the more upbasin faci-es, has
occurred both in the Atlantic and Gulf
Coastal Plain areas. However, a larger
number of sedimentary sequences
apparently has been largely or completely
removed in the Atlantic Coastal Plain
because the thinner units in the Atlantic
Coastal Plain were more susceptible to
removal by erosion than the thick Gulf
3
Coastal Plain units, particularly if the
erosion occurred during prolonged periods
of low sea level.
In Virginia and New Jersey, some
upper Paleocene and lower Eocene strata
are found in the outcrop belt and/or
shallow subsurface that are not present in
the deeper subsurface near the coast or on
the continental margin (Brown and others.
1972; Olsson and Wise, 1987; Poag and
Low, 1987). Various erosional
mechanisms, such as submarine canyon
formation and headward erosion,
channeling, and collapse slumping, have
been proposed to explain the absence of
these sediments offshore (Mountain, 1987).
Recent drilling by the U.S. Geological
Survey in the northern part of the
Salisbury Embayment reveals that a much
more complete record of Paleocene and
Eocene strata is present in New Jersey
than was previously recognized. 1."'he
completeness of the record is greater here
than that found in more southerly parts of
the Salisbury Embayment and other
embayments to the south (Owens and
others, 1988; Poore and Bybell, 1988; see
Bybell and Gibson, this guidebook). Of
particular note is the presence in New
Jersey of continuous sedimentation from
Martini's (1971) upper Zone NP 9 into
lower Zone NP 10 (Gibson, Bybell, and
Owens, 1991). The Zone NP 9-NP 10
boundary forms the most commonly
recognized Paleocene-Eocene boundary
(Berggren and others, 1985). Though the
record is more complete here, many of the
sequences found in New Jersey, including
the Zone NP 9-NP 10 section, do not crop
out and are only known from subsurface
occurrences.
Continuous sedimentation across the
Paleocene-Eocene boundary is known only
in the Atlantic Coastal Plain from New
Jersey. In the southern Atlantic Coastal
Plain, a more fragmentary record of
sediments near the Paleocene-Eocene
boundary occurs in South Carolina (Gohn
 ,.
/---,
/
I

o 100
t 200 300 MILES
! I
-I i' I I I I I
o 100 200 )00 400 KILOMETERS

GULF OF MEXICO

Figure 2. Generalized tectonic map for the Atlantic continental margin (from Owens and
Gohn.1985).

4
and others, 1983; Van Nieuwenhuise and
Colquhoun, 1982) and in the Albemarle
Embayment in North Carolina (Brown and
others, 1972). For example, lower Eocene
sediments of Zone NP 10 age are missing
in South Carolina (Bybell, unpubl. data;
Wallace Fallaw, oral commun., 1990).
PALEOCENE AND EOCENE
STRATIGRAPHY OF THE POTOMAC
RIVER VALLEY
The outcropping Paleocene and Eocene
sediments in the Potomac River Valley are
subdivided into four lithostratigraphic
units; in ascending order they are the
Brightseat Formation (lower Paleocene),
Aquia Formation (upper Paleocene),
Marlboro Clay (upper Paleocene), and
Nanjemoy Formation (lower Eocene). Two
additional units are found only in the
subsurface to the east of the field trip area;
they are the Piney Point Formation
(middle Eocene) and the Chickahominy
Formation (upper Eocene). All of the
above units are placed in the Pamunkey
Group, and they form. a distinctive series of
glauconitic, clastic sediments of middle
neritic to marginal-marine origin in the
outcrop and subcrop belt (Hazel, 1969;
Gibson and others, 1980; Ward, 1985).
The sediments are comprised
predominantly of unconsolidated to poorly
indurated., variably megafossiliferous.
argillaceous sands, glauconitic sands, and
clay. The biostratigraphic basis for the age
placements of the formations is given in
Bybell and Gibson (this guidebook).
Previous work
Early stratigraphic investigations of
Paleogene strata of Maryland and Virginia
consisted of high quality studies done by
Darton (1891), Clark (1896), Clark and
Martin (1901), and Clark and Miller
5
(1912). Subsequent lithologic studies of
the Paleogene strata in this area include
those of Beauchamp (1984.), Brown and
others (1972), Glaser (1971), McCartan
(1989), Mixon and others (1989), Reinhardt
and others (1980), Teifke (1973), Ward
(1984, 1985), and Ward and Strickland
(1985). References to additional lithologic
studies of this region can be found in these
works. References to primarily
biostratigraphic studies are contained in
Bybell and Gibson (this guidebook).
Paleocene strata
Lower Paleocene sediments of the
outcrop belt in Maryland and Virginia
represent considerably less Paleocene time
than the strata occurring in Alabama.
Only strata of NP 3 age are known from
southern Maryland and Virginia (Gibson
and others, 1980; Bybell, unpubL data)~ in
comparison, sediments placed in Zones NP
1, NP 2, and NP 3 are present in Alabama
(Gibson and others, 1982).
Younger Paleocene strata (uppermost
Zone NP 9) occur in the Potomac River
Valley than occur in Alabama (Frederiksen
and others, 1982). Unfortunately, the
youngest Paleocene deposit in Virginia., the-
Marlboro Clay. is of marginal marine
origin and does not contain calcareous
microfossils except in a few cases where
thin laminae of shallow marine origin are
interbedded.
Brightseat Formation
The Brightseat Formation is the lowest
stratigraphic unit of the Pamunkey Group,
and was named for outcrops found just to
the southeast of Washington, D.C.
Bennett and Collins (1952) applied the
name Brightseat Formation to beds of
fossiliferous, dark-gray to olive-gray,
micaceous, silty and clayey, fine-to-very-
fine quartz sand. Coarse sand grains and
granules of quartz- are scattered
throughout the unit; small quartz pebbles
and phosphate grains and pebbles occur,
especially near the base. The unit is
variably, but usually sparsely, glauconitic.
Fragments of lignitized wood, some quite
large, are scattered throughout, but are
most abundant toward the base. The beds
have undergone intense bioturbation,
which has obscured primary bedding
structures. The Brightseat Formation
disconformably overlies the Upper
Cretaceous Severn Formation in the
outcrop area; downdip in the Solomons
Island corehole, the Brightseat has a
dis conform able contact marked by
burrowing into the underlying strata of the
Lower and Upper(?) Cretaceous Potomac
Group.
The formation is thin, with a maximum
thickness of 10-12 feet in a few scattered
outcrops found just east of Washington,
D.C. in Maryland (fig. 1) and with a
thickness of less than 20 feet in the
subsurface. Exposures of the Brightseat
continue in Maryland to the north and east
of the type area in a narrow and highly
discontinuous band that extends with an
east-northeastern strike. The formation
rapidly thins and disappears, because of
erosional removal, approximately 10 miles
south of the type area.
Several outcrops to the south of this
known area have been placed in the
Brightseat Formation, including those of
Clark and Martin's (1901) bed 1 of the
Aquia Formation along Aquia Creek
(Hazel, 1969) and one outcrop along the
Rappahannock. River (Ward, 1985). There
also was a questionable placement into the
Brightseat of beds similar to bed 1 that
occur at the base of the Paleocene section
in the Oak Grove corehole (Gibson and
others, 1980). The main basis for the
inclusion of these beds into the Brightseat
was their dark-colored unfossiliferous
character and the fact that they underlay
7
the calcareous fossiliferous beds of the
Aquia. However, examination of the grain
size of these bedB shows them commonly to
be coarser than those found in the type
Brightseat; in addition. the age of these
beds was shown by palynomorphs to be
younger than the type Brightseat
(Frederiksen, 1984, reprinted in this
guidebook; Frederiksen, 1991). The
formational designation of these beds is
uncertain. Strata of Zone NP 3 age have
been identified elsewhere in Virginia in a
subsurface section of the Dismal Swamp
corehole in southeastern Virginia (fig. 1).
The bedB assigned to Zone NP 3 in the
Dismal Swamp corehole and the Brightseat
sediments of Zone NP 3 age that occur in
the Solomons Island corehole (fig. 1)
contain foraminiferal assemblages
suggestive of middle to outer neritic
environments of deposition (Gibson,
unpubl. data). The outcropping beds of the
Brightseat at the western edge of the
coastal plain in Maryland contain
foraminiferal faunas suggestive of middle
neritic environments (Nogan, 1964; Gibson,
unpubl. data); Drobnyk (1965) and
Beauchamp (1984) present sedimentary
evidence supporting a middle neritic
depositional environment (about a 300 foot
water depth). In Virginia, Maryland, and
New Jersey, the Zone NP 3 sequence
represents the deepest depositional
environments of any Tertiary unit in each
area (Gibson, unpubl. data). The high sea
level present in this area during Zone NP
3 agrees with the Cenozoic cycle chart of
Haq and others (1988) in which Zone NP 3
also is shown as the time of highest sea
level and greatest coastal onlap.
The middle neritic environments
present at the western (innermost) limits
of coastal plain sediments in Maryland and
the outer neritic environments present at
the western limits in New Jersey show
that this transgressive sequence originally
extended a considerable distance to the
west of the present limit of the Coastal
Plain. The presence today in the Coastal
Plain of only isolated exposures of this
deep water sequence, and its almost total
absence in Virginia and other parts of the
Coastal Plain, indicates large seale erosion
of this unit starting early in the Paleocene
before the deposition of the overlying
Aquia Formation.
The contact between the Brightseat
Formation and the overlying, upper
Paleocene Aquia Formation is noticeably
disconformable both in outcrop and in the
subsurface. Hazel (1969) presented both
lithologic and faunal evidence to confirm
the existence of the disconformity and
demonstrated that it represents a
significant hiatua. He calculated the
absolute duration of the break to be about
3.6 m.y. More recent published estimates
for the duration range from about 3.5 m.y.
(Bybell and Govoni, 1977) to about 2.9 m.y.
(Hazel and others, 1984).
Aquia Formation
The Aquia Formation is a medium-to.
dark olive-gray, very fine-to-medium-
grained, massively-bedded sand, which
usually is abundantly glauconitic. The
glauconite content of the sand fraction
ranges from a low of 5 to 10 percent to
well over 50 percent. The unit is heavily
bioturbated. and thalassinodian crustacean
(?) burrows dominate the ichnofauna of the
less shelly beds. Mollusk shells are
abundant in many beds; sometimes they
are randomly scattered, and sometimes
they occur in lenses or as thick, laterally·
persistent lag deposits. Several, indurated,
shelly sand beds, 0.5 to 2.0 feet thick, are
present in many areas and form prominent
marker beds in outcrop exposures. In the
upper parts of outcrops, the unit weathers
to a buff-gray or orange color. The Aquia
is approximately 80 feet thick in the type
area at Aquia Creek., but the thickness
increases to 150 feet to the east in the
8
subsurface section in the Solomons Island
corehole (fig. 1). The Aquia was divided by
Clark (1896) into nine lithologic zones,
which now are commonly called beds. The
basis for the subdivision into beds was the
lithologic nature and amount and variety
of mollusk shells in the sediments.
Although useful in the type area at Aquia
Creek, the beds cannot be easily identified
in other outcrop areas and in subswface
sections. Clark and Martin (1901) divided
the Aquia into two members, a lower
Piscataway Member that was a more
"poorly sorted" clayey sand, and an upper
Paspotansa Member that was a "better
sorted" sand. They placed the original
member boundary between bed 7 and bed
8. A revision of the member boundary,
which involved lowering it to the boundary
between bed 5 and bed 6, was made by
Ward (1985). A discussion of the member
boundary is contained in the discussion of
Stop 1 of our trip (Gibson and Bybell, this
guidebook).
The Aquia Formation is placed in
upper Zone NP 5 through much of Zone
NP 9 (see Bybell and Gibson, this
guidebook). Some of the nannofossil rones
are represented here by a thin sedimentary
deposit of inner-neritic origin (Zone NP 7
is recognized only in a two foot interval of
bed 5 and uppermost bed 4, and Zone NP
8 is found only in the two feet of bed 6 at
Aquia Creek), and the sediments may
represent only short intervals of time
within the zones.
The depositional environments of the
Aquia Formation in the type area are of
inner-neritic depths as interpreted from
the foraminiferal assemblages (Nogan,
1964; Gibson. unpubl. data); inner-neritic
environments are also suggested by
sedimentological studies (Beauchamp,
1984). The contact between the Aquia
Formation and Marlboro Clay, where seen
in outcrop and in most subsurface
exposures, is disconformable with a gently
undulating surface as we will see at Stop
4 of the field trip. In the Oak Grove
corehole, however, a rapid upward
transition from glauconitic sand of the
Aquia to interbedded thin laminae of
glauconitic sand and clay to massive clay
of the Marlboro occurs within a one foot
zone and suggests a conformable
relationship between the two units in this
area (Reinhardt and others, 1980).
Marlboro Clay
The Marlboro Clay is a relatively thin
but widespread unit that includes the
uppermost Paleocene (uppermost Zone NP
9) strata in this area. The thickness
ranges from 0.5 to 4.0 feet in the stops on
the field trip, but it commonly is from 10
to 20 feet thick with a maximum thickness
approaching 30 feet (Glaser, 1971). This
clay unit is found through much of
southern Maryland and Virginia, both in
outcrops and in the subsurface. In most
exposures, the clay is dominantly pink to
red-brown in color, but it may contain a
considerably lesser amount of silver-gray
colored clay. The gray colored beds, if
present, generally occur in the upper few
feet of the formation. The clay of the
Marlboro, which is typically 50 percent
kaolinite with 40 percent illite (Reinhardt
and others, 1980), contains varying
amounts of fine silt. Most of the Marlboro
is massively bedded and without structure,
but cross laminations of clay to fine silt are
sometimes visible (Reinhardt and others,
1980).
The lower contact with the Aquia
Formation generally is disconformable as
can be seen at Stop 4 of the field trip; in
the Oak. Grove corehole, however, the
glauconitic sand of the uppermost Aquia is
finely interlaminated with the clay of the
lowest Marlboro over a one-foot interval,
and there appears to be a gradational
transi tion between the two formations
(Reinhardt and others, 1980).
9
The upper contact with the Nanjemoy
Formation always is marked by a
burrowed surface, and sediments of the
Nanjemoy commonly are burrowed several
feet down into the Marlboro. The burrows
may be straight-sided or open-spiral
(Gyrolithes) crustacean burrows (Reinhardt
and others, 1980, fig. 5). This
disconformable contact will be seen at Stop
4 of the field trip.
The Marlboro Clay contains few
calcareous fossils, but it has a low-
diversity dinoflagellate assemblage that
suggests deposition in an estuarine
environment (Gibson and others, 1980).
Eocene strata
Lower Eocene strata are well
represented in the Paleogene outcrop belt
in Virginia and Maryland, and they
compare favorably with the lower Eocene
strata in Alabama in terms of thickness
and possible number of sequences. Much.
less of middle and late Eocene time is
represented by strata in this part of the
Salisbury Embayment in Virginia and
Maryland than in Alabama, and even
those units found in the Potomac River
Valley are present only in subsurface
exposures (Bybell and Gibson, this
guidebook, fig. 2).
Nanjemoy Formation
The Nanjemoy Formation is an olive-
gray, massively-bedded, very fine to fine-
grained glauconitic sand that contains
considerable but varying amounts of clay
and silt. Bioturbation has obscured
primary bedding structures. The clay
fraction is composed mostly of illite with
an increase in the amoun t of kaolinite near
the lower contact with the Marlboro Clay
(Reinhardt and others, 1980). Mollusk
shells are found in most of the formation,
both in outcrop and in subsurface
exposures, but they are cOIll!iderahly less
numerous than in the outcropping Aquia
Formation in the Aquia Creek area.
Clark (1896) proposed a sequence of
numbered "zones" (beds), which he
numbered from 11 to 17, for strata that
subsequently was named the N~emoy
Formation by Clark and Martin (1901).
Clark and Martin (1901) divided the
Nanjemoy Formation into two members,
the lower Potapaco Member and the upper
Woodstock Member. The beds and
members of Clark and Martin (1901),
which are difficult to recognize in the
Potomac River Valley and surrounding
areas, are not used in this guidebook.
The formation is named from Nanjemoy
Creek., which enters into the north side of
the Potomac River between Stops 6 and 7.
The thickness of the formation along the
Potomac River is estimated at 125 feet
(Clark and Martin, 1901); the thickness is
124 feet in the Oak Grove corehole and
thickens downbasin to 157 feet in the
Solomons Island corehole. A relatively~
thin section of 55 feet is present in the
Putney Mill corehole in south~central
Virginia
The environments of deposition for the
formation along the Potomac River and in
much of the strata in the coreholes is inner
neritic. The strata placed in Zone NP 11
in the Oak Grove, Putney Mill, and
Solomons Island coreholes represent the
deepest water found in the formation,
reaching middle neritic environments in
the Solomons Island core hole (Gibson,
unpubl. data), In the field trip area the
Nanjemoy is disconformably overlain by
the Miocene Calvert Formation; we will see
this contact at Stops 7 and 8. In the
subsurface to the east, the Nanjemoy is
disconformably overlain by the Piney Poin t
Formation.
10
Piney Point Formation
The name Piney Point Formation was
applied by Otton (1955) to 30 feet of
glauconitic sand with thin, interbedded,
cemented shell beds penetrated in a drill
hole along the lower reaches of the
Potomac River, about 30 miles to the east
of our final field trip stop (Stop 8). In the
Solomons Island corehole, which is located
12 miles to the northeast of the type area,
the Piney Point is 50 feet thick. The
formation in the Solomons Island core
appears to be similar to that found in the
type area; it consists of thin, grayish-olive-
green calcareous sandstones, which are
fine~grained with some medium grains,
moderately glauconitic, and with abundant
thick shells, principally Cubitostrea
sellaefarmis. and which are interbedded
with glauconitic. clayey fine sand. Coarse
sand and fine gravel occur at the base of
the formation. The Piney Point Formation
is found in outcrop along the Pamunkey
and James Rivers in central and southern
Virginia (Ward, 1985), where it consists of
clayey, glauconitic sand that tends to be
coarser grained than the underlying
Nanjemoy.
The foraminiferal faunas in the
Solomons Island corehole suggest
deposition in inner to possibly inner
middle~neritic environments (Gibson,
unpubl. data). The age placement within
the middle Eocene is discussed in Bybell
and Gibson (this guidebook).
Chickahominy Formation
The Chickahominy Formation was
described by Cushman and Cederstrom
(1945) from drillholes a short distance to
the southeast of the Putney Mill cOl-ehole.
There are no known outcrops of the
formation. It is present in the subsurface
of the lower Potomac River Valley. but
presumably was eroded from the area of
the Solomons Island core hole during a long
Oligocene hiatus. The lithology is a
slightly glauconitic, micaceous. slightly
sandy clay.
The formation is placed in the late
Eocene Zone NP 19/20 (see Bybell and
Gibson, this guidebook). The depositional
environment for this unit, interpreted from
limited samples, appears to be of middle-
neritic depths. This suggests that the unit
once occurred across the field trip area but
was subsequently eroded away.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The illustrations in the guidebook were
prepared by Jean Self-Trail and Thomas
Servais. Preparation of numerous
calcareous microfossil samples was done by
Elizabeth Hill, Jean Self-Trail, and
Thomas Servais. Helpful comments on the
manuscripts were made by Norman
Frederiksen and Robert Weems.
REFERENCES
Beauchamp, R.G., 1984, Stratigraphy and
depositional environments of the
Brightseat and Aquia Fonnations,
Maryland and Virginia: In Frederiksen,
N.O., and Krafft, Kathleen, eds.,
Cretaceous and Tertiary stratigraphy,
paleontology, and structure, southwestern
Mary land and northeastern Virginia,
American Association of Stratigraphic
Palynologists Field Trip Volume and
Guidebook, p. 78-11l.
Bennett, R.R., and Collins, G.G., 1952,
Brightseat Formation, a new name for
sediments of Paleocene age in Maryland:
Washington Academy of Science J oumal, v.
42, p. 114-116.
Berggren, W.A., Kent, D.V., Flynn, J.J., and
Van Couvering, J.A. 1985, Cenozoic
geochronology: Geological Society of
America Bulletin, v. 96, p. 1407·1418.
11
Brown, P.M., Miller, J.A., and Swain, F.M.,
1972, Structural and stratigraphie
framework, and spatial distribution of
permeability of the Atlantic Coastal Plain,
North Carolina to New York: U.S.
Geological Survey Professional Paper 796,
79 p.
Bybell, L.M., and Govoni, D.L., 1977.
Preliminary calcareous nannofossil
zonation of Brightseat and Aquia
Formations (Paleocene) of Maryland and
Virginia - stratigraphic implications:
American Association of Petroleum
Geologists Bulletin, v. 61, p. 773-774.
Clark, W.B., 1896, The Eocene deposits of the
middle Atlantic slope in Delaware.
Maryland, and Virginia: U.S. Geological
Survey Bulletin 141, 167 p.
Clark, W.B., and Martin, G.C., 1901, The
Eocene deposits of Maryland: Maryland
Geological Survey Eocene volume, p. 19-92.
Clark, W.B., and Miller. B.L., 1912,
Physiography and geology of the coastal
plain province of Virginia: Virginia
Geological Survey Bulletin 4, p. 1·58, 88-
222.
Cushman, J.A, and Cederstrom, D.J., 1945, An
upper Eocene foraminiferal fauna from
deep wells in York County, Virginia:
Virginia Geological Survey Bulletin 67, p.
1-57.
Darton, N.H., 1891, Mesozoic and Cenozoic
formations of eastern Virginia and
Maryland: Geological Society of America
Bulletin, v. 2, p. 431-450.
Drobnyk, J .W., 1965, Petrology of the
Paleocene-Eocene A.quia Formation of
Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware: Journal
of Sedimentary Petrology, v. 35, p. 626-642.
Frederiksen. N.O., 1984, Lower Tertiary pollen
biostratigraphy, Maryland and Virginia: In
Frederiksen, N.O., and Kram, Kathleen,
eds., Cretaceous and Tertiary stratigraphy,
paleontology, and structure, southwestern
Maryland and northeastern Virginia,
American Association of Stratigraphie
Palynologists Field Trip Volume and
Guidebook, p. 163-168.
.... ----, 1991, Midwayan (Paleocene) pollen
correlations in the eastern United States:
Micropaleontology, v. 37, p. 101-123.
FTederiksen, N.O., Gibson, T.G., and Bybell,
L.M., 1982, Paleocene-Eocene boundary in
the eastern Gulf Coast: Gulf Coast
Association of Geological Societies
Transactions, v. 32, p. 289-294.
Gibson, T.G., 1970, Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic
tectonic aspects of the Atlantic Coastal
Margin: Geological Society of America
Bulletin, v. 81, p. 1813~1822.
~--------, 1983, Stratigraphy of Miocene through
Lower Pleistocene strata of the United
States central Atlantic Coastal Plain: In
Geology and Paleontology of the Lee Creek
Mine, North Carolina, Ray, C.E., ed.,
Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology,
Number 53, p. 35-80.
Gibson, T.G., Andrews, G.W., Bybell, L.M.,
Frederiksen, N.O., Hansen, Thor, Hazel,
J.E., McLean, D.M., Witmer, R..J., and Van
Nieuwenhuise, D.S., 1980, Biostratigraphy
of the Tertiary strata of the core: In
Geology of the Oak Grove Core, Part 2,
Virginia Division of Mineral Resources,
Publication 20, p. 14-30.
Gibson, T.G., Bybell, L.M., and Owens, J.P.,
1991, Paleocene-Eocene boundary 10
southwestern New Jeysey: a rare
continuous section: Geological Society of
America Abstracts with Programs, v. 23,
no. 1, p. 35.
Gibson, T.G., Mancini, KA, and Bybell, L.M.,
1982, Paleocene to middle Eocene
stratigraphy of Alabama: Gulf Coast
Association of Geological Societies
Transactions, v. 32, p. 449-458.
Glaser, J.D., 1971, Geology and mineral
resources of southern Maryland: Maryland
Geological Survey Report of Investigations
Number 15, 84 p.
Gchn, G.S., Hazel, J.E., Bybell, L.M., and
Edwards, hE., 1983, The Fishburne
Formation (lower Eocene), 8 newly defined
subsurface unit in the South Carolina
Coastal Plain: U.S. Geological Survey
Bulletin 1537-C, p. C1-C16.
Hansen, H.J., 1978, Upper Cretaceous
(Senonian) and Paleocene (Danian)
pinchouts on the south flank of the
Salisbury Embayment, Maryland, and their
relationship to antecedent basement
12
structures: Maryland Geological SUTVey
Report of Investigations 29, 36 p.
Haq, B.U., Hardenbol, Jan, and Vail, P.R.,
1988, Mesozoic and Cenozoic
chronostratigraphy and cycles of sea-level
change: In Sea-level changes: an integrated
approach, Wilgus, C.K, Hastings, B.S.,
Ross, C.A., Posamentier, Henry, Van
Wagoner, John, and Kendall, C.G. St. C.,
eds., Society of Economic Paleontologists
and Mineralogists Special Publication No.
42, p. 71-108.
Hazel, J .E., 1969, Faunal evidence for an
unconfonnity between the Paleocene
Brightseat and Aquia Formations
(Maryland and Virginia): U.S. Geological
Survey Professional Paper 650-C, p. C58~
C65.
Hazel, J.E., Edwards, hE., and Bybell, L.M.,
1984, Significant unconformities and the
hiatuses represented by them in the
Paleocene of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal
Province: In Schlee, J.S., ed., Interregional
unconformities and hydrocarbon
accumulation, American Association of
Petroleum Geologists Memoir 36, p. 59-66.
Martini, Erlend, 1971, Standard Tertiary and
Quaternary calcareous nannoplankton
zonation: Planktonic Conference, 2nd,
Rome, 1969, Proceedings, p. 739-785.
McCartan, Lucy, 1989, Mineralogy of the
Haynesville, Virginia, cores: U.S.
Geologica.l Survey Professional Paper 1489-
B, p. B1-B9.
Mixon, R.B., Po wars , D.S., Ward, L.W., and
Andrews, G.W., 1989, Lithostratigraphy
and molluscan and diatom biostratigraphy
of the Haynesville cores - outer coastal
plain of Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey
Professional Paper 1489-A, p. AI-A48.
Mountain, Gregory, 1987, Cenozoic margin
construction and destruction offshore New
Jersey: Cushman Foundation fOT
Foraminiferal Research, Special
Publication 24, p. 57-83.
MWT8.Y, G.E., 1961, Geology of the Atlantic
and Gulf Coastal Province of North
America: Harper and Brothers, New York,
692 p.
Nogan, D.S., 1964, Foraminifera, stratigraphy,
and paleoecology of the Aquia Formation of
 Maryland and Virginia: Cushman
Foundation for Foraminiferal Research
Special Publication 7, 50 p.
Olsson, R.K, and Wise, S.W., Jr., Upper
Paleocene to middle Eocene depositional
sequences and hiatuses in the New Jersey
Atlantic Margin: Cushman Foundation for
Foraminiferal Research Special Publication
24, p. 99-112.
Otton, E.G., 1955, Ground-water resources of
the southern Maryland Coastal Plain:
Maryland Department of Geology, Mines,
and Water Resources Bulletin 15,347 p.
Owens, J.P., Bybell, L.M., Paulachok, Gary,
Ager, T.A, Crtlnzalez, V.M., and Sugarman,
P.J., 1988, Stratigraphy of the Tertiary
sediments in a 945-foot>-deep corehole near
Mays Landing in the southeastern New
Jersey Coastal Plain: U.S. Geological
Survey Professional Paper 1484, 29 p.
Owens, J.P., and Gohn, G.S., 1986,
Depositional history of the Cretaceous
series in the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain:
stratigraphy, paleoenvironments, and
tectonic controls of sedimentation: In
Geologic Evolution of the United States
Atlantic Margin, Poag, C.W., ea, Van
Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, p. 25-
86.
Poag, C.W., and Low, Doris, 1987, Regional
unconformities cored on the New Jersey
continental slope: Cushman Foundation for
Foraminiferal Research Special Publication
24, p. 113-136.
POOTe, R.Z., and Bybell, L.M., 1988, Eocene to
Miocene biostratigraphy of New Jersey core
ACGS #4: implications for regional
stratigraphy: U.S. Geological Survey
Bulletin 1829, 22 p.
Reinhardt, Juergen, Newell, W.L., and Mixon,
RB., 1980, Tertiary lithostratigraphy of
the core: In Geology of the Oak Grove core,
Virginia Division of Mineral Resources
Publication 20, Part 1, p. 1-13.
Richards, H.G., 1948, Studies on the
subsurface geology and paleontology of the
Atlantic Coastal Plain: Philadelphia
Academy ofN atural Science Proceedings, v.
100, p. 39-76.
Teitke, RH., 1973, Stratigraphic units of the
Lower Cretaceous through Miocene series:
In. Geologic Studies, Coastal Plain of
Virginia, Virginia Division of Mineral
Resources, Bulletin 83, p . 1-78.
Van Nieuwenhuise, D.S., and Colquhoun, D.J.,
1982, The Paleocene-lower Eocene Black
Mingo Group of the east central coastal
plain of South Carolina: South Carolina
Geology, v. 26, p. 47-67.
Ward, 1..W., 1984, Stratigraphy and mollusean
assemblages of the Pamunkey and
Chesapeake Groups, upper Potomac River:
In Frederiksen, N.O., and Krafft, Kathleen,
eds., Cretaceous and Tertiary stratigraphy,
paleontology, and structure, southwestern
Maryland and northeastern Virginia,
American ABsociation of Stratigraphic
Palynologlsts Field Trip Volume and
Guidebook, p. 3-77.
--------, 1985, Stratigraphy and characteristic
mollusks of the Pamunkey Group (lower
Tertiary) and the Old Church Formation of
the Chesapeake Group-Virginia Coastal
Plain: U.S. Geological Survey Professional
Paper 1346, 78 p.
Ward, L.W., and Strickland, G.1.., 1985,
Outline of Tertiary stratigraphy and
depositional history of the U.S. Atlantic
Coastal Plain: In Geological Evolution of
the United States Atlantic Margin, Poag,
C.W., ed., Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New
York, p. 87-123.

13
14
Calcareous nannofossils and foraminifers from Paleocene and Eocene
strata in Maryland and Virginia
By Laurel M. Bybell and Thomas G. Gibson
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA 22092
INTRODUCTION
Calcareous nannofossils and
foraminifers are common constituents of
the richly fossiliferous, marine to marginal
marine, Paleocene and Eocene strata of
Maryland and Virginia that occur both as
outcrops and in the subsurface (fig. 1).
These units also contain other fossil groups
including mollusks, dinoflagellates, spores
and pollen, and vertebrate remains. The
strata are divided into six
lithostratigraphic units: the Brightseat
Formation (lower Paleocene), Aquia
Formation (upper Paleocene), Marlboro
Clay (upper Paleocene), Nanjemoy
Formation (lower Eocene), Piney Point
Formation (middle Eocene), and
Chickahominy Formation (upper Eocene).
See Gibson and Bybell (this guidebook) for
a discussion of the various lithologic units
and a list of previous lithologic
investigations.
PREVIOUS WORK
There are limited published data on
Paleocene and Eocene calcareous
nannofossils from Maryland and Virginia.
Bybell and Govoni (1977) studied
assemblages from the outcropping
Brightseat and Aquia Formations. Bybell
(in Gibson and others, 1980) examined
calcareous nannofossils from the Aquia
Formation, Marlboro Clay, and Nanjemoy
Formation from the Oak Grove corehole in
northern Virginia, and Gibson and Bybell
15
(1984) discussed the calcareous
nannofossils and foraminifers in the
Brightseat, Aquia, and Nanjemoy
Formations.
Paleocene and Eocene foraminiferal
studies, which are more numerous than
those concerning calcareous nannofossils,
began with Bagg's early studies (1898,
1901). Subsequent important papers by
Cushman (1944), Shiffiett (1948), and
Nogan (1964) examined the foraminiferal
assemblages of the Aquia Formation.
Cushman and Cederstrom (1945) studied
the foraminifers of the Chickahominy
Formation, a unit known only from the
subsurface of eastern Virginia (Gibson,
1970). Cushman (1948) examined
Paleogene foraminifers from the Hammond
well on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Page (1959) studied the Brightseat
foraminifers, as did Shifflett (1948), who
unknowingly included the foraminifers of
some Brightseat strata (then still
unrecognized as Danian in age) in her
study of Aquia assemblages. More
recen tly, Gibson and others ( 1980) reported
on assemblages from the Aquia and
Nanjemoy Formations in the Oak Grove
corehole in northern Virginia, as did Poag
(1989) from a corehole in northeastern
Vil'ginia.
Most of the early foraminiferal studies
concentrated on the benthonic
assemblages. Planktonic foraminifers,
which are uncommon in most of the
Paleocene or Eocene lithologic units in this
region, were not regarded in the past as
being as important for biostratigraphy as
 •

VIRGINIA

FIGURE 1. Localities in Maryland and Virginia. Dots indicate coreholes, and

striped pattem indicates outcrops.

16
they are today. However, Loeblich and
Tappan (1957) conducted a pioneering
study on planktonic foraminifers of the
Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains that
included assemblages from the Brightseat
and Aquia Formations. Subsequent
studies, such as those of Page (1959),
Nogan (1964), and Poag (1989), placed
increasing emphasis on the planktonic
component of the foraminiferal
assemblages.
FOSSn.. ZONATIONS AND DATUMS
Calcareous nannofossils and planktonic
foraminifers are the two fossil groups that
are most commonly used for worldwide,
Paleogene biostratigraphic correlation.
Calcareous nannofossil assemblages are
sufficiently diverse and abundant in the
Paleocene and Eocene units of the
Salisbury Embayment to serve as a useful
tool in dating these coastal plain
sediments. In contrast, age-diagnostic,
planktonic foraminiferal species are not
common in most samples from these
shallow-marine strata or are them common
downbasin and to the east in samples from
slightly deeper-water deposits that are
found in the subsurface.
Calcareous nannofossils and benthonic
foraminifers occur in fair abundance in
most of the outcropping Paleocene strata
and in lesser numbers in the outcropping
Eocene strata of Maryland and Virginia.
The abundance, diversity, and preservation
of both groups generally increase in
core hole samples. The increase in these
two groups is a result of the fact that the
subsurface samples generally are from
more offshore, deeper-water environments,
which also are finer-grained than coeval
sediments in surface exposures; these
finer-grained sediments have less ground
water movement through them and thus
there is less dissolution of the fossils.
Where possible, corehole samples were
17
used to determine biostratigraphic
relationships because all the samples in a
core hole have a known vertical position.
This contrasts with the necessity for
piecing together a composite section from
the thin, isolated sections found in surface
exposures. The difficulty in piecing
together separated outcrop sections will be
demonstrated on the field trip.
In addition to the calcareous
nannofossil and foraminiferal studies,
there have been numerous studies on other
fossil groups preserved in the Brightseat
and Aquia Formations, the Marlboro Clay,
and the Nanjemoy Formation in the
Potomac River valley and adjacent area.s.
Dinoflagellate studies include those of
Whitney (1976), Goodman (1979; 1984,
reprinted in this guidebook), Witmer (in
Gibson and others, 1980), EdwardB and
others (1984, reprinted in this guidebook),
and Edwards (1989). Frederiksen (1979;
1984, reprinted in this guidebook; 1991)
and Frederiksen and others (1982)
examined the spore and pollen
assemblages from the Brightseat and
Aquia Formations, the Marlboro Clay, and
the Nanjemoy Formation in the current
field trip area. Weems (1984, 1988) and
Weems and Horman (1983) are studies of
the vertebrate remains in the Brightseat,
Aquia, and Nanjemoy Formations. Hazel
(1968) studied the ostracodes of the
Brightseat Formation.
Calcareous nannofossils
There are two commonly-used
calcareous nannofossil zonations. The
zonation of. Martini (1971) is based
primarily upon studies in hemipelagic
sediments, while the zonation of Bukry
(1973, 1978; Okada and Bukry, 1980) is
based primarily upon studies of samples
collected by the Deep Sea Drilling Project.
Both of these zonations were considered for
the current study, but the zonation of
Martini (1971) proved to be much more
useful because the diagnostic species in
this zonation occur in the study area.
The following list enumerates the
calcareous nannofossil horizons that are
used to date Paleocene and Eocene
sediments from Maryland and Virginia.
These horizons are based on data in
Martini (1971), Bukry (1973, 1978), Okada
and Bukry (1980), and Perch-Nielsen
(1985), as well as from BybeU's calcareous
nannofossil studies. An asterisk (*)
indicates a species used to define a horizon
in the zonation of Martini (1971), and a
pound sign (#) indicates a species used to
define a horizon in the zonation of Bukry
(1973, 1978). FAD indicates a first
appearance datum. and LAD indicates a
last appearance datum. Figure 2 shows
the placement of Martini's NP Zones
relative to Blow's (1969) planktonic
foraminiferal zones and to geologic time
(modified from Berggren and others, 1985).
Eocene Markers
LAD *ChiasmolithuB bUkns / solitus - top of
Zone NP 16
FAD Daktylethra punctulata - in Zone NP 15
LAD *IWiscoaster sublodoensis - base of Zone
NP 14
LAD *Tribrachiatus orthostylus - top of Zone
NP 12
FAD Helicospluura lophtJta - near top of Zone
NP 12; can be used to approximate the
Zone NP 12113 boundary
LAD Ellipsolithus macellus - near the top of
Zone NP 12
FAD Helicosphaera seminulum - mid Zone
NP 12
FAD *#DiscOO8ter lodoensis - base of Zone
NP 12
FAD Chiphragmalithus calathus - in Zone
NP 11
LAD *#Tribrachiatus contortus - top of Zone
NP 10
LAD Discoaster multiradiatus . near top of
Zone NP 10
18
LAD Tribrachiatus bramlettei - near top of
Zone NP 10
FAD Tribrachiatus orthtJstylus - upper part of
Zone NP 10
FAD #Discooster diastypus - mid Zone NP 10
FAD #Tribrachiatus contortus - mid Zone
NP 10
LAD Placozygus sigmoides - lower Zone NP 10
LAD Fasciculithus spp. - lower Zone NP 10
LAD Hornibrookina sp. - lower Zone NP 10
FAD *Tribrachiatus bramkttei - base Zone
NP 10
Paleocene Markers
FAD Transuersopontis pulcher - uppermost
Zone NP 9
LAD Scapholithus apertus - upper Zone NP 9
LAD Biantholithus astralis . upper Zone NP 9
FAD Toweius occultatus - in Zone NP 9
FAD Toweius callos us - in Zone NP 9
FAD Lophodolithus nascens - upper Zone
NP 9
FAD #Campylosphaera ecxkla / dela - mid Zone
NP9
FAD *#Discoaster multiradiatus - base of Zone
NP9
FAD *Heliolithus riedelii - base of Zone NP 8
FAD #Discoaster mohleri - base of Bukry'8
Zone CP6·; approximately equivalent to base
of Martini's Zone NP 7
FAD *tlHeliolithus kleinpellii - base of Zone
NP6
FAD Helwlithus cantabria.e - mid Zone NP 5
FAD &aphtJlithus apertus - in Zone NP 5
FAD Toweius touae - in Zone NP 5
FAD Chiasmolithus bidens - in Zone NP 5
FAD *#Fasciculithus tympaniformis - base of
Zone NP 5
FAD Toweius pertuslLS - in Zone NP 4
FAD Ellipsolithus distichus - near base of
Zone NP 4
FAD *Ellipsolithus macellus - base of Zone
NP 4
FAD *Chiasmolithus danicu8 - base of Zone
NP3
FAD *#Cruciplacolithus tenuis - base of Zone
NP2
 -
CI1
:?! w
C/) C/)
w
"-'"
z Z LL LL LL
CI)
0:: (J) (J) 0
()N_ CJ)O~ 0 0>- 0
:IN''''' CJ)O C/)w
«
w I W Z...Jm
0«0)
O...J
w-T""
cn zZ <t ZC/) CJ)«
z~
>- <.) 0:: C/) -- O~ClZ 00::
LL CJ ~O::T""
w - «C/)z f->-Z- -w
f- .
0«
0
(J)
Z
0
a...
«
I--
ZLL~
:5 Z 9
a...:::Ero
O°f-
...JLL.0::
«0«
OZ~
«0::<0
~ « cr:
cr: ~ >
«""""l
::E~
o::w
f-OO
«~
~«
0
...J
...J
w en «-
0::
z
Z-....-
«
0
LL
Oz
LL 0
LL

:::E ~
NP 21
PIT
NP 19120
~
W P16
r
~
~~
PRIABONIAN

t-40
:5 P15
NP18
.......
~-

NP17
BARTONIAN P14 PINEY POINT -~
I-' :'l FORMATION
NP16 SHARK
W P12 RIVER
t- 45
Z
W
......J
Q
.-. --- FORMATION
LISBON
0
W FORMATION
~ LUTETIAN P 11 NP15
0
-so 0
W P10 ~

NP14 ~.-.. .....

TALLAHATTA
P9 NP13 FORMATION
>-
-I P8
t-55 a:
«
W
YPRESIAN
P7
NP12
NP 11
NANJEMOY
FORMATION
MANASQUAN
FORMATION ----
BASHIANOL
HATCHETIGBEE
P6 F2.R~ATIONS....
b NP10 JMARLBORO I..
lJruSCAHQ~
~ CLAY .....
ill P5 NP9 //.7L~ V'I FORMATION"
Z W
r NP8 AQUIA
--- NANAFALIA
1-60
ill « SELANDIAN P4 NP7
FORMATION
VINCENTOWN FORMATION
......J FORMAnON
0 b
NP6 IJ NAHEOLA'"
P3
0 ~~ ~ FORMATIONr.
HORNERS. ~/-L'L/~u,;

•
w >-
......J
P2
NP4
---J ((
c TOWN ~~K
<! DANIAN P1 - NP 3 FOl=lflAA I N FORMATION
«
~ ~~
1-65
a.. UJ b NP2 YTON
FORMATION
hr- NP -yy"
FIGURE 2. Correlation chart of Paleocene and Eocene strata that are present in Alabama,
Maryland, New Jersey. and Virginia. Time scale from Berggren and others, 1985.

19
Foraminjfers
AI though they are less common than
the calcareous nannofossils, there are
sufficien tly diverse, planktonic
foraminiferal assem blages to allow
placement within a specific zone for a
limited number of samples from Paleocene
and Eocene intervals in the outcropping
strata, and a slightly greater number of
samples from the more downbasin
coreholes. However, there are relatively
thick intervals throughout all these
shallow-water strata that contain only a
few non-diagnostic specimens, and these
sediments could not be dated with
planktonic foraminifers.
Both Loeblich and Tappan (1957) and
Nogan (1964) applied an early planktonic
foraminiferal zonation to the outcropping
Aquia Formation strata in the Aquia Creek
area. Loeblich and Tappan placed the
Aquia in the uppermost subzone of their
three planktonic subdivisions of the
Paleocene (the Globorotalia velascoensis-
Globorotalia acuta-Globigerina spirolis
subzone of the Globorotalia angulata zone);
they probably were the first to recognize
that the Aquia is late Paleocene in age
rather than the previollsly postulated early
Eocene age_ Nogan (1964) also used the
Loeblich and Tappan zonation, but
incoITectly assigned their uppermost
subzone, and thus much of the Aquia, to
the lower Eocene. Because of extensive
downward mixing of Aquia sediments into
the underlying Brightseat Formation due
to bUITowing, Nogao also inconectly
identified the uppermost part of the
Brightseat Formation and considered it to
be part of the overlying Aquia Formation.
At the same time, the presence of
Globoconusa daubjergensis in rus mixed
sample led him to erroneously consider
that the lowermost part of the Aquia was
of Danian age (Hazel, 1969).
Poag (1989) applied a modified
planktonic zonation of Blow (1969, 1979)
20
with some mixed success to the Paleocene
and Eocene strata from a corehole near
Haynesville, Virginia. Poag was unable to
date some relatively thick intervals in the
upper Paleocene and lower Eocene strata
because they lacked diagnostic planktonic
assemblages. On the basis of the very
limited planktonic assemblages available,
he did assign ages to some intervals in this
core. However, some of these ages are in
conflict with those derived from
palynomorphs from the same intervals in
this corehole (Edwards, 1989).
Some benthonic foraminiferal species
have ranges restricted to parts of the
upper Paleocene and lower Eocene in the
study area. These species may prove
useful fol' local correlation within similar,
inner-neritic depositional environments
that occur in the more upbasin areas (fig.
3). Gibson currently is conducting a study
that compares the biostratigraphic
distribution of benthonic species found in
outcrop samples of the Brightseat, Aquia,
and Nanjemoy Formations with those
found in subsurface sections, for example
at the Oak Grove, Solomons Island,
Waldorf, and Putney Mill coreholes (fig. 1).
Other benthonic species in this region
have local extinction horizons that are
identical to or similar to those reported far
outside the study area. The most
prominent example of this is Tappanina
selmensis. Van Morkhoven and others
(1986) recorded that this species becomes
extinct in deeper water deposits in the
world oceans at the end of planktonic Zone
P6b (equivalent to the middle part of Zone
NP 11). This species becomes extinct in
Virginia and Maryland in the lower part of
Zone NP 10 - within the lowest 10 feet of
the Nanjemoy Formation in several
core holes (Gibson and others, 19BO). In
Alabama, this species also disappears in
the lower part of Zone NP 10 in the lower
part of the Bashi Formation (Gibson,
unpubl. data).
s:-
~
:c
<.)
FORMATIONS OF
oa.. VIRGINIA AND
MARYLAND
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FIGURE 3. Range chart of important species Of benthonic and planktonic foraminifers in Paleocene to lower
Eocene strata of Maryland and Virginia; species ranges modified from Gibson and others, ~ 980.

21
BIOSTRATIGRAPHY
Brightseat Formation - early Paleocene
Zone NP 3
The Brightseat Formation occurs m
scattered exposures that are east of
Washington, D.C. in Prince Georges
County, Maryland and northeast to Anne
Arundel County in central Maryland.
Subsurface samples of this formation were
obtained from the Solomons Island and
Waldorf coreholes in southern Maryland
(fig. 1). No Brightseat strata are known
from northern and central Virginia.
Gibson and others (1980) originally
identified Brightseat strata in the Oak
Grove core hole in northern Virginia.
Subsequent pollen studies by Frederiksen
(1991), which placed these strata in the
upper Paleocene, make it highly unlikely
that these sediments are in the Brightseat
Formation. The Brightseat is early
Paleocene in age in every other sample
where it can be dated. Calcareous
nannofossils placed this entire formation
within Zone NP 3, based on the presence of
Chiasmolithus danicus (FAD at the base of
Zone NP 3) and the absence of members of
the genus Ellipsolithus (first occurs at base
of Zone NP 4).
The occurrence of the planktonic
foraminifers Globoconusa daubjergensis,
Planorotalites compressa, and Subbotina
pseudobulloides places these strata in the
middle to upper part of Zone PI, which
supports an early Paleocene, Zone NP 3,
age. Numerous benthonic foraminiferal
species that occur in the Brightseat are not
present in sediments overlying this
formation (Page, 1959; Gibson, unpubl.
data).
The Brightseat Formation can be
correlated with the lower part of the
Hornerstown Formation of New Jersey,
which contains sediments assigned to both
Zone NP 3 and Zone NP 4 (fig. 2). In the
Gulf Coastal Plain, sediments of Zone NP
22
3 age occur in the Clayton Formation and
the Porters Creek Formation of Alabama
and western Georgia (Gibson and others,
1982).
Aquia Formation - late Paleocene
Zones NP 5-NP 9
The Aquia Formation is exposed in
numerous outcrops in southern Maryland
near Washington, D.C., in northeastern
Virginia near Aquia Creek., and along river
systems further to the south in Virginia.
The Waldorf and Solomons Island
core holes in Maryland and the Oak Grove
corehole in Virginia (fig. 1) penetrated the
entire Aquia Formation. The Putney Mill
corehole was not drilled deeply enough to
penetrate Aquia strata.
The Aquia Formation spans much of
late Paleocene time. At least some
portions of Zones NP 5, NP 6, NP 7, NP 8,
and NP 9 are present at the type section of
the Aquia Formation along Aquia Creek.
Although all of the late Paleocene
calcareous nannofossil zones are
represented here, many of these zones are
represented by a very thin sedimentary
record; disconformities of a greater or
lesser time interval are assumed to
separate many of the zones. The oldest
calcareous nannofossil-bearing Aquia
strata, which are exposed at Aquia Creek
and at numerous exposures in Prince
Georges County in southern Maryland, are
assigned to the upper part of Zone NP 5,
based on the presence of FCUlciculithus
tympaniformis and Heliolithu8 cantabriae.
Strata that are in Zone NP 5, but which do
not contain the upper Zone NP 5 indicator
Heliolithus cantabriae, are present in the
Solomons Island., Oak Grove, and Waldorf
coreholes. Strata belonging to Zone NP 6
and/or NP 7 are well represented in the
Aquia Formation outcrops near
Washington, D.C., along the Potomac River
in the vicinity of Aquia Creek, and at the
Oak Grove corehole in northern Virginia.
HelwUthus kkinpellii, the FAD of which
marks the base of Zone NP 6, is present in
these samples. At the Aquia type locality
along Aquia Creek, it is possible to
distinguish Zone NP 7 from Zone NP 6
based on the presence of Discoaster
mohleri (FAD can be used to appro:rim.ate
the base of Zone NP 7). This species,
however, has not been identified in the
Aquia Formation at any other localities.
Zones NP 8 (recognized by the presence of
Heliolithus riedelii) and NP 9 (recognized
by the first occurrence of Discoaster
multiradiatus) occur throughout the study
area.
Evidence for several disconformities of
varying duration within the shallow-
marine sequence can be seen both in
outcrop and in subsurface sections. For
example, a significant unconformity occurs
in the Solomons Island and Waldorf
coreholes; here strata placed in Zone NP 5
are overlain by strata placed in Zone NP 8.
There also is a shoaling upward sequence
at the top of the Aquia that is separated
from the overlying marginal marine
sediments of the Marlboro Clay by a
disconformity of apparently short duration
within Zone NP 9 in the Aquia Creek area;
this disconformity is found throughout
much of the area where these two
formations occur.
A limited amount of supporting
biostratigraphic data for Aquia strata is
provided by the planktonic foraminifers.
The planktonic foraminifer Morozovella
angulata , which occurs in low frequency in
some samples from the lower and middle
part of the Aquia, has a range from the
base of the M. angulata Zone (Zone P3 of
Blow, 1969) to the upper middle part of the
Planorotalites pseudomenardii Zone (Zone
P4) (Toumarkine and Luterbacher, 1985).
This level is approximately equal to the
upper part of Zone NP 8 according to
Berggren and others (1985). The highest
occurrence of M. angulata in the Aquia
23
Creek section is in the middle part of bed
6 of Clark and Martin (1901) in the same
sample that contains calcareous
nannofossils characteristic of Zone NP 8.
Loeblich and Tappan (1957) recordedP.
pseudomenardii from their Aquia Creek
section at 15 to 17 feet above beach level;
this height is most likely within bed 6.
Zone P4 is the total range zone of
Planorotalites pseudomenardii, and this
occurrence substantiates a Zone NP 8
placement. The listing of this species by
Loeblich and Tappan in probable bed 6
sediments is the only recorded occurrence
that can be tied reasonably closely to the
middle part of the outcropping Aquia.
Although Nogan (1964) reported P.
pseudomenardii from the Aquia Creek
section, no detailed locality data were
given with which individual beds can be
determined. N ogan also recorded this
species from outcrops along Cabin Branch
in Prince Georges County, where only the
lower Aquia is exposed, and from
Piscataway Creek, where lower and middle
Aquia are exposed. In the Oak Grove
corehole (Gibson and others, 1980), P.
pseudomenardii was found in a six-foot
interval that was placed in Zone NP 8 on
the basis of calcareous nannofossils.
Planorotalites pseudomenardii is one of the
more abundant late Paleocene marker
species found in the somewhat deeper-
water strata of the coreholes.
There is a significant change in the
benthonic foraminiferal assemblages
between the lower and upper parts of the
Aquia Formation. An extinction horizon,
which occurs in the Oak Grove Corehole at
372 ft (Gibson and others, 1980),
corresponds to the calcareous nannofossil
Zone NP 8·NP 9 boundary and suggests
that there is a hiatus at this depth in the
Oak Grove corehole. Cibicides neelyli, C.
howelli, Cibicidoides marylandicus,
Pararotalia perclara, and Marssonella
conica are benthonic species that are only
present in the lower part of the Aquia
below this depth. A few species, however,
such as Anomalinoidespseudowelleri, have
their first appearance in the upper strata.
Currently, we are examining assemblages
from the Aquia Creek outcrop sections tD
see if there are corresponding benthonic
foraminiferal changes across the Zone NP
8-Zone NP 9 boundary at this location.
A large-scale extinction of deep-sea
foraminiferal species and the presence of
low-oxygen species occurs near the
Paleocene-Eocene boundary in oceanic
sections (Miller and others. 1987; Thomas,
1989; Kennett and StDtt, 1991). In
Maryland and Virginia, only a limited
number of species become extinct near the
end of the Paleocene at the top of the
Aquia Formation. However, a significant
number of benthonic species do have their
first appearance in the basal Eocene strata.
of the Nanjemoy Formation. Some of the
species from the Nanjemoy Formation
suggest low-oxygen environments (Gibson
and others, 1980; Gibson, unpubl. data).
Low-oxygen foraminiferal faunas, which
were deposited in middle-to-outer neritic
environments, occur in the upper
Paleocene and lower Eocene sediments of
the Manasquan Formation of New Jersey
(Gibson and others, 1991). The possible
low-oxygen sediments of the Nanjemoy
probably correlate with the Zone NP 10
low-oxygen sediments of the Manasquan.
The late Paleocene foraminifers of the
Aquia Formation do not contain low-
oxygen faunas; the sediments of the Aquia
were deposited in very shallow-marine
environments under high-energy, agitated,
and oxygenated conditions. The uppermost
Paleocene Marlboro Clay may be
equivalent in time to the Zone NP 9 low-
oxygen deposits of New Jersey, but these
sediments were deposited in water too
shallow and too brackish to support
calcareous foraminiferal assemblages.
The Aquia Formation correlates with
the Vincentown Formation of New Jersey,
which has strata also spanning Zones NP
24
5-NP 9. In the Gulf Coastal Plain, the
Nanafalia Formation (upper Zones NP 5
through lower NP 9) and the Tuscahoma
Formation (Zone NP 9) correlates with the
Aquia Formation.
Marlboro Clay - late Paleocene
upper Zone NP 9
The Marlboro Clay is a marginal
marine unit that occurs in varying
thicknesses of less than a foot to 20 feet
throughout the study area. Although the
generally massively~bedde~ brick red and
gray clays of the Marlboro appear to be an
unlikely source of calcareous microfossils,
we routinely sample and examine some
intervals for calcareous nannofossils and
foraminifers. In the Waldorf and Putney
Mill coreholes, more coarsely-grained,
glauconitic, thin laminae of presumed
shallow-marine origin are interlaminated
with relatively pure clay beds; these
glauconitic laminae contain calcareous
nannofossils that indicate placement
within Zone NP 9. These laminae in the
Waldorf corehole occur near the top of a
thick, continuous, section of the Marlboro,
which suggests that in this corehole, and
probably in most of the other coreholes, the
entire Marlboro is of late Paleocene age.
Frederiksen and others (1982) postulated
that the Marlboro Clay spanned the
Paleocene-Eocene boundary on the basis of
a change in the pollen assemblage wi thin
the Marlboro. The calcareous nannofossil
data, however, indicate that the Marlboro
Clay is more likely entirely Paleocene in
age.
Only five, agglutinated foraminiferal
species were recovered from the Marlboro
Clay, and they do not have any known age
significance.
On the basis of its stratigraphic
position near the tDp of the Paleocene
(uppermost Zone NP 9), the Marlboro
correlates with lithologically-similar clay
beds from the lower part of the Manasquan
Formation of New Jersey.
Nanjemoy Formation - early Eocene
Zones NP 10-NP 13
The Nanjemoy Formation is well
exposed along the Potomac River and along
river systems in southern Maryland and in
northern and central Virginia. The
Waldorf, Solomons Island, Oak Grove, and
Putney Mill coreholes penetrated the
entire Nanjemoy. The Nanjemoy contains
sediments that can be placed in the lower
Eocene calcareous nannofossil Zones NP
10, NP 11, NP 12, and NP 13. The first
appearance datum (FAD) of Tribrachiatus
bramlettei marks the base of Zone NP 10,
which according to Berggren and others
(1985) is the base of the Eocene. T.
bramlettei is present in basal Nanjemoy
samples from the Waldorf and Solomons
Island coreholes and along the Potomac
River. Thus, the Paleocene-Eocene
boundary (Zone NP 9-NP 10 boundary)
probably occurs at the Marlboro-Nanjemoy
contact. The lowest Nanjemoy sample
examined in the Oak Grove corehole,
however, does not contain Tribrachiatus
bramlettei, and there is a possibility that
these sediments are still Paleocene in age
(Zone NP 9) and that the Zone NP 9-NP 10
boundary occurs wi thin the lower part of
the Nanjemoy. This would be similar to
the situation in New Jersey where the
Paleocene-Eocene boundary occurs within
the lower part of the Manasquan
Formation. The U.S. Geological Survey
recently drilled the Loretto corehole near
the Oak Grove corehole, and samples from
the lower Nanjemoy will be examined in
this new corehole in order to determine an
accurate age for the basal Nanjemoy in
this part of Virginia
Significant post-Nanjemoy stripping of
sediments in the study area determined
what portions of the Nanjemoy Formation
25
are presently preserved. Although
stripping occurred on a regional basis, local
variations in the presence and thickness of
calcareous nannofossil zones from corehole
to corehole and outcrop to outcrop may be
controlled in part by faulting (Mixon and
Powars, 1984). The higher, and thus
younger, portions of the Nanjemoy in the
more upbasin areas are missing, and in
the Waldorf corehole only Zones NP 10 and
NP 11 are present. In the Oak Grove
corehole, Zones NP 10 and NP 11 also are
well represente~ but there is only one
sample from Zone NP 12, and Zone NP 13
is missing entirely. This may reflect local
faulting or deeper erosion because in the
nearby field trip area along the Potomac
River, Zones NP 10, NP 11, NP 12, and
possibly Zone NP 13 are well represented.
In the Putney Mill corehole to the south,
Zones NP 10 through NP 13 are present.
In more downbasin sections, such as in the
Solomons Island corehole, the Nanjemoy
contains thick sections of Zones NP 10, NP
11, NP 12, and NP 13.
The LAD of Tribrachiatus contortus is
used to mark the top of Zone NP 10, and
the FAD of Discoaster lodoensis marks the
base of Zone NP 12. The LAD of
Tribrachiatus orthostylus is the marker for
the top of Zone NP 12.
Planktonic foraminiferal assemblages in
the Nanjemoy are scarce and have low
diversity. Most species of Morozovella, a
planktonic foraminiferal genus that is used
to zone the early Eocene, are conspicuously
abs.e nt from the Nanjemoy. The few age-
diagnostic forms that are found agree with
the calcareous nannofossil zonation. Some
samples from the lower part of the
Nanjemoy contain Morozovella 8ubbotinae,
which ranges from the uppermost
Morozovella. velascoensis Zone (P6a =
uppermost Zone NP 9) to the middle of the
Morozovella aragonensis Zone (P8 = parts
of Zones NP 12 and NP 13), and Acarinina
wilcoxensis, which ranges from the middle
of the M. velascoensis Zone (P5 = Zone 9)
to the top of the Morozovella formosa
formosa Zone (P7 = part of Zones NP 11
and NP 12). Pseudohastigerina
wiicoxensis, which has its FAD near the
base of the Eocene (Berggren, 1971) and
ranges up into the middle Eocene, occurs
throughout much of the Nanjemoy.
The FAD's of numerous benthonic
species occur either at the base or in the
lower part of the Nanjemoy (fig. 3). Some
of these species have relatively short
stratigraphic ranges in the study area and
become extinct in the lower and middle
part of the Nanjemoy, whereas other
species continue up through much or all of
the formation. The extinction of
Tappanina selmensis in the lower beds of
the Nanjemoy, which were deposited in
shallow-water environments, is discussed
above in the Fossil Zonations and Datums
section. This species has a cosmopolitan
distribution throughout Upper Cretaceous
into lowermost Eocene strata (Zone P6b =
Zone NP 10 and part of Zone NP 11),
according to Van Morkhoven and others
(1986). In the Nanjemoy, T. selmensis has
its LAD in the lower part of Zone NP 10.
According to Berggren and others (1985)
the base of Zone NP 10 correlates with the
base of Zone P6b. This may reflect a more
precise placement for the extinction level
of this species, or it may represent an
earlier disappearance in the shallow-water
environments of the Nanjemoy in
comparison to deeper-water environments.
The Nanjemoy Formation correlates
with the middle part of the Manasquan
Formation of New Jersey, which contains
Zones NP 9-NP 14. In the Gulf Coastal
Plain, the Bashi and Hatchetigbee
Formations (Zones NP 10-NP 11) and the
lower part of the Tallahatta Formation
(Zones NP 12-14) of Alabama correlate
with the Nanjemoy Formation.
26
Piney Point Formation - middle Eocene
Zone NP 16 and possible Zone 17
The Piney Point Formation is absent in
the Waldorf and Oak Grove coreholes,
presumably because of subsequent erosion
of these strata. In the Solomons Island
corehole, sediments of the Piney Point are
assigned to either Zone NP 15 or NP 16 of
the middle Eocene. These two zones could
not be separated easily in this corehole
because no calcareous nannofossil species
are present that are diagnostic of Zone NP
15 or Zone NP 16. However, large
specimens of Reticulofenestra umbiUco.
indicate that these sediments most likely
belong to Zone NP 16. The Putney Mill
corehole also contains sediments that
provisionally are assigned to Zone NP 16
and one sample that may be in Zone NP 17
because it does not contain Chiasrnolithus
SOlitU8, which has its LAD at top of Zone
NP 16. DiMarzio (1984) examined strata
of the Piney Point Formation that are
exposed along the Pamunkey River, and he
assigned these sediments to Subzone CP
14a of Bukry (1973; Okada and Bukry,
1980), based on the presence of
Reticulofenestra umbilica and
Chiasrnolithus solitus. This subzone is
approximately equivalent to Martini's
(1971) upper Zone NP 15 and Zone NP 16.
Age diagnostic planktonic foraminifers
are not found in these relatively shallow-
water sediments. Numerous first
appearances of benthonic species in the
Maryland Eocene occur in this formation.
Many of these species were previously
reported from the middle Eocene Castle
Hayne Formation in North Carolina
(Jones, 1983).
In New Jersey, portions of the Shark
River Formation (Zones NP 14-NP 18)
correlate with the Piney Point Formation.
In Alabama, much of the Lisbon Formation
(Zones NP 15-17) correlates with the Piney
Point Formation.
Chickahominy Formation - late Eocene
Zone NP 19/20
The Chickahominy Formation was
described by Cushman and Cederstrom
(1945) from subsurface sections in eastern
Virginia. This formation is known only
from subsurface sediments in eastern
Virginia and far eastern Maryland,
Delaware, and New Jersey (Gibson, 1970).
Calcareous nannofossils were examined
from two Chickahominy samples collected
from a corehole 20 miles southeast of the
Putney Mill corehole. The samples
indicate placement in the late Eocene Zone
NP 19/20. There are no other calcareous
nannofossil data for this formation.
Cushman and Cederstrom (1945) in
their original study of the Chickahominy
described a distinctive benthonic
foraminiferal assemblage. Gibson
examined planktonic foraminifers from the
type wells. Although the original material
was from drillhole cuttings, they appear to
have been sampled very carefully and
exhibit little obvious contamination.
Planktonic marker species from the type
interval of the Chickahominy include
Globigerina a ngiporo ides, Hantkenina
alabamens is I and Turborotalia
cerroazulensis cerroazulensis; these species
indicate a late Eocene age (Zone PIS-PIB).
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28
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. --•. _ .. , 1984, Dinoflagellate biostratigraphy of
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_..... _._-, 1969, Faunal evidence for an
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Martini, Erlend, 1971, Standard Tertiary and
Quaternary calcareous nann ()plankton
zonation: Planktonic Conference, 2nd,
Rome, 1969, Proceedings, p. 739-785.
Miller, KG., Janecek, T.R, Katz, M.E., and
Keil, D.J., 1987, Abyssal circulation and
benthic foraminiferal changes near the
Paleocene/Eocene boundary:
Paleoceanography, v. 2, p. 741-761.
Mixon, R.B., and P()warS, D.S., 1984, Folds and
faults in the inner coastal plain of Virginia
and Maryland: their effect on distribution
and thickness of Tertiary rock units and
local geomorphic history: In Frederiksen,
N.O., and Krafft, Kathleen, eds.,
Cretaceous and Tertiary stratigraphy,
paleontology, and structure, southwestern
Maryland and northeastern Virginia,
American Association of Stratigraphic
Palynologists Field Trip Volume and
Guidebook, p. 112-122.
Nogan, D.S., 1964, Foraminifera, stratigraphy,
and paleoecology of the Aquia Formation of
Maryland and Virginia: Cushman
Foundation for Foraminiferal Research
Special Publication 7, p. 1-50.
Okada, Hisatake, and BUKry, David, 1980,
Supplementary modification and
introduction of code numbers to the low-
latitude coccolith biostratigraphic zonation
(Bukry, 1973; 1975): Marine
Micropaleontology, v. 5, no. 3, p. 321-325.
Page, R.A, 1959, Micropaleontology and
stratigraphy of the Brightseat Formation:
Unpublished PhD dissertation, Rutgers
University, 166 p.
Perch-Nielsen, Katerina, 1985, Cenozoic
calcareous nannofossils: In Bolli, H.M.,
Saunders, J.B., and Perch-Nielsen,
Katerina, eds., Plankton stratigraphy:
Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press, p. 427-554.
Poag, C.W., 1989, Foraminiferal stratigraphy
and paleoenvironments of Cenozoic strata
cored near Haynesville, Virginia: U.S.
Geological Survey Professional Paper 1489-
D, p. Dl·D20.
Shifflett, Elaine, 1948, Eocene stratigraphy
and Foraminifera of the Aquia Fonnation:
Maryland Department of Geology, Mines
and Water Resources Bulletin 3, p. 1-93.
29
Thomas, Ellen, 1989, Development of Cenozoic
deep-sea benthic foraminiferal faunas in
Antarctic waters: In Crame, J.A, ed.,
Origins and evolution of the Antarctic
Biota, Geological Society Special
Publication 47, p. 283-296.
Toumarkine, Monique, and Luterbacher,
Hanspeter, 1985, Paleocene and Eocene
planktic foraminifera: In Bolli, HM.,
Saunders, J.B., and Perch-Nielsen,
Katerina, eds., Plankton stratigraphy:
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p.
87·154.
Van Morkhoven, F.P.C.M., BerggTen, W.A, and
Edwards, AS., 1986, Cenozoic cosmopolitan
deep-water benthic foraminifera: Bulletin
des Centres de Recherches Exploration-
Production Elf-Aquitaine, Memoire 11, 421
p.
Weems, R.E., 1984, Vertebrate biozones of the
Pamunkey Group (Paleocene and Eocene,
Maryland and Virginia): In Ward, L.W.,
and Krafft, Kathleen, eds., Stratigraphy
and paleontology of the outcropping
Tertiary beds in the Pamunkey River
Region, central Virginia Coastal Plain, p.
198-204.
.-------, 1988, Paleocene turtles from the Aquia
and Brightseat Formation, with a
discussion of their bearing on sea turtle
evolution and phylogeny: Proceedings of the
Biological Society of Washington, v. 101,
no. I, p. 109-145.
Weems, R.E., and Honnan, S.R., 1983. Teleost
fish remains (Osteoglossidae, Blochiidae,
Scornbridae, Triodontidae, Diodontidae)
from the lower Eocene Nanjemoy
Fonnation of Maryland: Proceedings of the
Biological Society of Washington, v. 96, no.
1, p. 38-49.
Whitney, B.L., 1984, Dinoflagellate
biostratigraphy of the Maestrichtian-
Danian section in southern Maryland: 1n
Frederiksen, N.O., and Krafft, Kathleen,
eds., Cretaceous and Tertiary stratigraphy,
paleontology, and structure, southwestern
Maryland and northeastern Virginia,
American Association of Stratigraphic
Palynologists Field Trip Volume and
Guidebook, p. 123-136.
30
Reprinted from Frederiksen. N.O., IlDd Krafll, K., eds., 1984 , Cretaceous and Tertiary stratigraphy, paleontology, II.lid structure,
southwestern Maryland Ilud northwellStern Virginia. American Association of SLrllligraphic Palyno\ogillts Field Trip VollJme
and Guidebook.

LOWER TERTIARY (PAMUNKEY GROUP) DINOFLAGELLATE BIOSTRATIGRAPHY, POTOMAC

RlVER AREA, VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND

l 2 3
Lucy E. Edwards , David K. Goodman and Roger J. Witmer

lU.S. Geological Survey, 970 National Center, Reston, VA 22092

2AROO Oil and Gas Company, P.O. Box 2819, Dallas, TX 75221
3union Oil Company of California, P.O. Box 76. Brea, CA 92621

INTRODUCTION

The pamunkey Group in Virginia and Maryland consists of glauconitic

sands and silts, often with abundant shells, and clays and silty clays.
Dinoflagellate cysts in these sediments typically are abundant and well
preserved. Some of the dinocyst floras are quite diverse (as many as 70
species per sample), suggesting normal marine conditions. Other floras
are of low diversity, dominated by a single species. and may suggest
estuarine, nearshore, or brackish conditions. The lowest Paleocene is
absent in the Potomac River basin! the Brightseat Formation in Maryland
represents the upper part of the lower Paleocene (Hazel ~ ~., in
press) • The Brightseat (?) Formation in Virginia may represent the upper
part of the lower Paleocene or the lower part of the upper Paleocene.
1'he remainder of the Paleocene and the lower Eocene is represented by
nearly continuous deposition in the Aquia Formation, the Marlboro Clay,
and the Nanjemoy Formation. The dinocysts in these sediments record a
distinctive succession of species and have considerable potential for
biostratigraphic analysis.

McLean (197la), Goodman (1975), and Witmer (1975) have detailed the
dinoflagellates of the Pamunkey Group in unpublished theses. Published
works of a taxonomic or descriptive nature include McLean (1971b, 1972,
1973a, 1973b, 1974, 1976), Goodman (1979), and Edwards (19B2). Goodman
(1979) provided a detailed account of the quantitative distribution of
cyst species in the upper part of the N.anjemoy near Popes Creek,
Maryland. Dinoflagellate biostratigraphy of the Pamunkey Group in the
Oak Grove core in northern Virginia (Text - Figure 1) was given in Gibson
!:!.~. (1980). Additional preliminary biostratigraphic data were also
discussed in abstracts by Witmer and Goodman (1980) and Edwards and
Witmer (19B3) .

The poorly exposed nature of Coastal Plain outcrops makes detailed

biostratigraphy difficult. Recently, however, more than a dozen
coreholes have been dr illed by or for the U.S. Geological Survey in the
Virginia Coastal Plain. These coreS allow much refinement of the
dinoflagellate succession. The purpose of this chapter is to summar ize
br iefly the important occurrences of selected dinocysts in cores taken
near the field trip stops and at several outcrops near the field trip
stops (Text-Figure 1). Text-Figure 2 shows the ranges as assembled using
graphic correlation (technique modified from Shaw, 1964) from four cores
in northern Virginia at Oak Grove, Ashton, Lake Jefferson, and ForI:
McLean. Ranges from the Popes Creek sections in southern Maryland (field
trip Stop 8) have been incorporated by inspection. A brief discussion of
the formations and the significant dinocyst ranges follows.

31
 N

o 5 10 Miles
I I I I
I

o 5 10 15 Kilometers

Virginia

Maryland

Popes
Creek

Fort

•
Lake Jefferson core

core

Text-Figure 1. Index map showing the location of principal cores and

outcrop sections used to compile the ranges in the present study.

32
 BRIGHTSEAT (7) FORMATION

As noted in Gibson ~ al. (1980), the lower 41 feet of the Paleocene

in the Oak Grove core lacks calcareous mater ial and contains a dinocyst
flora that is noticeably older than the overlying shelly beds of the
Aquia Formation. This noncalcareous unit is also present at field trip
Stop 4, where it is a very micaceous sand, and in the Ashton and Fort
McLean cores. It is apparently absent in the Lake Jefferson core,
possibly owing to the Skinkers Neck structure of Mixon and Powars (this
volume) . This unit is questionably referred to the Brightseat Formation
in the present chapter. The dinocyst flora of the Brightseat in Maryland
is treated" in Whitney (this volume).

Palaeoperidinium pyrophorum (Plate 1, fig. 4) is found in the

Brightseat(7) but not in younger material. Glaphrocysta exuberans-
complex (Plate 2, fig. 1) is relatively abundant. Fibradinium
annetorpense is common and ?Danea californica (Plate 1, fig. 3) is often
present.

AQtJIA FORMATION

The Aquia Formation is a massive-bedded, fine, glauconitic quartz

sand, locally calcareous, containing horizons of abundant shell
(typically Turritella mortoni). The formation has been divided into a
lower member, the Piscataway, and an upper member r the Pa"spotansa (Clark
and Martin, 1901), recently revised by ward (in press) .

The lower Aquia (Piscataway Member, as revised and restricted by

Ward, in press) bears a relatively low-diversity dinoflagellate flora
dominated by the Glaphrocysta exuberans-complex and locally by Deflandrea
cf. ~ dartmooria (Plate 1, fig. 7). The lowest occurrence of Deflandrea
phosphoritica is found in the lower Aquia. The lower Aquia can be
subdivided by means of dinoflagellates into a lower zone containing
Fibradinium annetorpense and an upper zone above the last appearance of
this species. Xenikoon australis is present in the lower Aquia; its last
appearance is at the top or perhaps just below the top of the
Piscataway. Adnatosphaeridium robustum, an unnamed species of Cassidium
(Plate 2, fig. 6), and, less consistently, Eocladopyxis peniculata, first
occur in the upper Piscataway.

The upper Aquia (Paspotansa Member, as revised by Ward, in press) is

marked by an influx of species including Kallosphaeridium brevibarbatum
and an unnamed spec ies of Impag id inium (Plate 3 r fig. 7). Apectod inium
homomorphum has its lowest occurrence at the base of the upper Aquia in
some cores and slightly above the base in others; it becomes increasingly
dominant upwards in the Aquia.

On the basis of Foraminifera, Gibson ~ a1. (1980) suggested a

shallow marine environment for the lower Aquia, with the formation
representing gradually deepening and then shoaling conditions. The
abrupt termination of foraminifer and dinoflagellate species and the
influx of new species suggest a possible diastem at the Piscataway-
Paspotansa boundary. Nogan (1964), McLean (197la) and Gibson et al.
(1980) suggest a gradual shoaling within the upper Aquia to the brackish

33
 ..
u
N
"
_..., ...
....
.~ "-

z
..
::i <I)
0
~
«
.., ILl
a::
::i
a::
II)
l-
t,;) W 0 Z
c( I/) u. :;)
r- - r--- 700"
S3 z
2
I-

54
«
::I
II:
...0
1111
W 2'50
Z ~

55 w 0
(.) ::Ii
0 .,
11/
W z
- 56 'z"
300

-57 -
..
m
0
'0"
II
58 ·

w :z:
}I 3S0

59 0
Z :!;
UJ =>.
U 0;(
0 "'a:
60 UJ 0
400

~
...J
c(
a.
? ~
'r::li
..
0"-
Ii
450 1111
Text-Figure 2. Ranges of selected dinoflagellates in the Pamunkey Group
in the Potomac River area. Vertical scale units are derived from the
actual measured footage at Oak Grove, but the ranges are composites
based on the sections and outcrops shown in Text-Figure 1. Ages in
mega-anni (Ma) are from Hazel et al. (in press). Dashed ranges
indicate that the range of a given taxon is known to extend up or
down based on personal observations from other sections in the
Virginia Coastal Plain.

34
conditions of the overlying Marlboro C~?y.

According to Gibson et~. (1980), the Aquia Formation spans most of

the late Paleocene, from nannofossil zones NP 5 to NP 9 (Martini,
1971) . The first occurrence of Apectodinium homomorphum is an important
biostratigraph ic datum and roughly approximates the base of NP 9 (Costa
and Downie, 1976; Jan du Chene, 1977). Many of the dinoflagellate species
found in the Aquia Formation are also known from the Gulf Coast of the
united States (Edwards, 1980). The succession of first and last
occurrences varies somewhat in the two areas, and more details need to be
clarified.

MARLBORO CLAY

The Mar Iboro Clay is a ligh t-grey to redd ish-brown, compact clay
that at some localities lies between the Aquia and Nanjemoy Formations.
The lower boundary of the Marlboro consists of layers of clay interbedded
with or burrowed into typical Aquia lithology. The upper part of the
Marlboro Clay bears sand-filled burrows from the overlying Nanjemoy
Formation.

Dinoflagellate diversity is low in the Marlboro. Seneqalinium?

dilwynense is the only abundant species. Phelodinium rnagnificum-complex
(Plate 1, fig. 9) and Fromea fragilis have their highest appearances
within the Marlboro. Muratodinium fimbriatum has been found in the upper
Marlboro Clay.

Sporomorph data (Freder iksen, 1979; Gibson ~ ~., 1980) indicate

that at least the lower part of the Marlboro Clay is of late Paleocene
age. Brenner ~ a1. (1979) and Frederiksen (l979) suggested that the
Paleocene-Eocene boundary lies within or at the top of the Marlboro. The
Marlboro Clay contains sporomorphs, dinoflagellates, Pseudoschizaea, and
agglutinated Foraminifera (Gibson ~ ~., 1980), suggesting a brackish-
water environment of deposition.

NANJEMOY FORMATION

The Nanjemoy Formation is a variably clayey, fine, glauconitic

quartz sand, with horizons of abundant shell (typically Venericardia).
The formation has been divided into a oore clayey lower member, the
Potapaco, and a typically sandier upper member, the Woodstock (Clark and
Martin, 1901; see also Ward, in press).

The Potapaco Member of the Nanjemoy Formation is character ized by

the abundant Ot consistent occurrence of Senegalinium? dilwynense,
Deflandtea phosphoritica, Muratodinium fimbriatum, species of Areoligera
and Adnatosphaeridium, and species of the Wetzeiiella-complex including
Apectodinium homomocphu~, Wilsonidium tabula tum, Wetzeliella
hampdenensis, and Wetzeliella varielongituda/samlandica. First
occurrences of probable age significance are, in ascending order,
Ascostomocystis hydria (base of the member), Wilsonidium tabulatum,
Wetzeliella hampdenensis, Biconidinium longissimum, Emmetrocysta sp.,
Homotryblium tasmaniense, Achilleodinium bifotrnoides and Wetzeliella
varielongituda/samlandica. Foraminiferal species diversities and

35
percentages of planktic species suggest that the Potapaco str-a ta were
deposited under inner to middle shelf conditions dUring a general
transgressive phase (Gibson ~ al., 1980).

The dinoflagellate flora in the Potapaco Member indicates

correlation with the sequence from the base of the Eatonicysta ursulae
(LC-2) Assemblage Zone (Bujak ~~., 1980) to the top of the Dracodinium
similis Zone (Costa and Downie, 1976) of the Isle of Wight, England (see
Goodman, this volume, for a more detailed discussion). These
correlations suggest that the Potapaco corresponds to a late early
Ypresian Age. The horizon marked by the massive appearance of
Wilsoriidium tabulatum may represent the same hor izon noted by Jan du
Ch~ne (1977) in the Schlieren Flysch of Switzerland.

The Woodstock Member of the Nanjemoy is characterized by the

consistent occurrence of Wetzeliella varielongituda/samlandica, W.
hampdenensis, Kisselovia coleothrypta, Spinidinium SPa of Goodman, 1979,
and Eiconidinium longissimum (see Goodman, 1979, and this volume). Range
bases with probable age significance are, in ascending order, Kisselovia
coleothrypta, Homotryblium caliculum, B. tenuispinosum/pallidum,
Hafniasphaera 9oodmanii, Spinidinium Spa of Goodman, 1979, and
Wetzeliella SPa of Goodman, 1979. The Woodstock strata were deposited in
inner to middle shelf environments (Gibson ~ al., 1980), which may have
been punctuated by local transgressive-regressive pulses (Goodman, 1979).

Goodman (1979) noted the first OCCUrrence of ~ coleothrypta in the

lower third of the Woodstock Member in the Popes Creek sections. This
species has its lowest occurrence in the Oak Grove core a few feet above
a lithologic change at 246 ft depth. We use these observations to
suggest that the Potapaco-Woodstock boundary in the Oak Grove core should
be placed at the lithologic change at 246 ft, rather than at 276 ft as
suggested by Gibson ~~. (1980). (See also, Ward, in press.)

Dinoflagellate stratigraphy indicates that the Woodstock Member is

correlative with the upper part of the Eatonicysta ursulae (LC-2)
Assemblage Zone, the Kisselov ia reticulata (LC-3) Assemblage Zone, and
part of the Homotryblium abbreviatum (B-1) Assemblage Zone (Bujak ~ al.,
1980) on the Isle of Wight (equivalent to the Wetzeliella varielongituda
Zone and the lower part of the Kisselovia coleothryPta Zone of Costa and
Downie, 1976). These correlations suggest a middle to late Ypresian Age
for these strata (see Goodman, this volume, for more discussion).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank those who helped make this study possible
including D. M. McLean, R. E. Mixon. and L. W. Ward. Helpful suggestions
were made by N. O. Frederiksen and T. G. Gibson. Publication authorized
by the Director, U.S. Geological Survey on September 20, 1984. Published
wi th permission of Arco Oil and Gas Company and Union Oil Company of
California.

36
References

BRENNER, G. J., PATRICELLI, JUDITH, and RACHELE, LINDA

1979 Palynology of the Paleocene-Eocene sediments from PGDf-35
well, Prince Georges County, Maryland (U.S.A.) (abs.).
Palynology, 3:280.
BUJAK, J. P., DOWNIE, C., EATON, G. L., and WILLIAMS, G. L.
1980 Dinoflagellate cyst zonation of the Eocene, southern
England. In: Bujak, J. P., Downie, C., Eaton, G. L, and
Williams, G. L., Dinoflagellate cysts and acritarchs from
the Eocene of southern England. Palaeontolog ieal
Association of London, Special Papers in Palaeontology No.
24:15-26.
CLARK, W. B., and MARTIN, G. C.
1901 The Eocene deposits of Maryland. Maryland Geoloq ical
Survey, Eocene Volume, 331 p.
COSTA, L. I., and DOWNIE, C.
1976 The distribution of the dinoflagellate Wetzeliella in the
Palaeogene of northwest Europe. Palaeontology, 19:591-614.
EDWARDS, L. E.
1980 Dinoflagellate stratigraphy: a first look. ~: Reinhardt,
J., and Gibson, T. G., upper Cretaceous and lower Tertiary
geology of the Chattahoochee River Valley, western Georgia
and eastern Alabama • ..!.r!.: Frey, R. W. (ed.), Excursions in
southeastern geology, v. 2. Geological Society of America,
Annual Meeting (93rd) Atlanta 1980, Field Trip Guidebooks,
p. 424-427.
1982 Biostratigraphically important species of Pentadinium
Gerlach, 1961, and a likely ancestor, Hafniasphaera
goodmanii n. sp., from the Eocene of the Atlantic and Gulf
Coastal Plains. Palynology, 6:105-117.
EDWARDS, L. E., and WITMER, R. J.
1983 Paleocene and early Eocene dinOflagellate zonation,
Virginia Coastal Plain (abs.). American Association of
Stratigraphic Palynologists, Inc., 16th Annual Meeting San
Francisco, Program and Abstracts, p. 13-14.
FREDERIKSEN, N. O.
1979 Paleogene sporomorph biostratigraphy, northeastern
Virginia. Palynology, 3:129-167.
GIBSON, T. G., ANDREWS, G. W., BYBELL, L. M., FREDERIKSEN, N. 0., HANSEN,
T., HAZEL, J. E., MCLEAN, D. M., WITMER, R. J., and VAN NIEUWENHUISE,
D. S.
1980 Part 2: Biostratigraphy of the Tertiary strata of the
core. In: Geology of the Oak Grove Core. Virg inla
Division of Mineral Resources Publication 20:14-30.
GOODMAN, D. K.
1975 Lower Eocene Dinoflagellate Assemblages from :the Maryland
Coastal Plain South £!. Washington, D.C. Unpu.blished M.S.
thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, 298 p.
1979 Dinoflagellate "communities" from the lower Eocene Nanjemoy
Formation of Maryland, U.S.A. Palynology, 3:169-190.
HAZEL, J. E., EDWARDS, L. E., and BYBELL, L. M.
In press Significant unconformities and the hiatuses represented by

37
 PLATE 1

Figure
1 Cyclopsie11a? sp.
R 3020 A (I), Office Ball core, King George County, Va.,
Brightseat(?) Formation, orientation unknown, 62SX.

2 Cannosphaeropsis sp.
R 3020 B (3), Office Hall core, King George County, Va.,
Brightseat{?) Formation, right lateral view, 600X.

3 ?Danea californica (Drugg) Stover & Evitt

VPISUPL-307 (AL-15), Oak Grove core, Westmoreland County, Va.,
Brightseat(?) Formation, dorsal view, 475X.

4 Palaeoperidinium pyrophorum (Ehrenberg) Sarjeant

VPISUPL-303 (AD-2), Oak Grove core, Westmoreland County, Va.,
Brightseat(?) Formation, dorsal view of ventral surface, 325X.

5 Fibradinium annetorpense Morgenroth

VPISUPL-308 (A0-17), Oak Grove core, Westmoreland County, Va.,
Aquia Formation, ventral view of dorsal surface, 7S0X.

6 Xenikoon australis Cookson & Eisenack

VPIStJPL-309 (A0-19), Oak Grove core, Westmoreland County, Va.,
Aquia Formation, orientation unknown, SOOX.

7 Deflandrea cf. D. da·rtmoor 1a Cookson & Eisenack

R 2868 B t Ashton core, King George County, Va., Brightseat(?)
Formation, dorsal view, SEM, 600X.

8 Caligodinium amiculum Drugg

VPIStJPL-306 (A0-10), Oak Grove core, Westmoreland County, Va.,
Aquia Formation, orientation unknown, 4S0X.

9 Phe10dinium magnificum-comp1ex
R 3020 K (2), Office Hall core, King George County, Va., Aquia
Formation, dorsal view of dorsal surface, 600X.

10 Fromea fragilis (Cookson & Eisenack) Stover & Evitt

R 3107 J (2), Carters Corner core, Caroline County, Va., Aquia
Formation, orientation unknown, 400X.

38
 PLATE 1

7
9
10

39
 PLATE 2

Figure
1 Glaphrocysta exuberans-complex
VPISUPL-309 (~o-l9), Oak Grove core, westmoreland County, Va.,
~quia Formation, ventral view of ventral surface, 400X.

2 Diphyes colligerum (Deflandre & Cookson) Cookson

VPISUPL-264 (AL-55) Popes Creek sections, Char les County, Md.,
Nanjemoy Formation, dorsal view of ventral surface, 650X.

3 Seneqalinium? dilwynense (Cookson & Eisenack) Stover & Evitt

VPISUPL-323 (Ao-47), Oak Grove core, Westmoreland County, Va.,
Marlboro Clay, ventral view of ventral surface, 57SX.

4 Turbiosphaera filosa (Wilson) Archangelsky

VPISUPL-3l2 (A0-24) I Oak Grove core, Westmoreland County, Va.,
Aquia Formation, dorsal view of dorsal surface, 400X.

5 ?~ndalusiella rhombohedra (Benson) Stover & Evitt

R 3020 J (2), Office Hall core, King George County, Va., Aquia
Formation, dorsal view of dorsal surface, pericyst missing,
375X.

6 Cassidium sp.
VPISUPL-361 (A0-35), Oak Grove core, Westmoreland County, Va.,
Aquia Formation, orientation unknown, 400X.

7 Deflandrea phosphor i tica EisenacK

R 3020 J (2), Office Hall core, King George County, Va., Aquia
Formation, dorsal view of dorsal surface, 375X. '

8 Protoperidinium? sp.
VPISUPL-330 (A0-68), Oak Grove core, Westmoreland County, Va.,
Nanjemoy Formation, ?dorsal view, 450X.

9 Adnatosphaeridium robustum (Morgenroth) De Coninck

VPISUPL-316 (A0-35), Oak Grove core, westmoreland County, Va.,
Aquia Formation, orientation unknown, SOOX.

10 Eocladopyxis peniculata Morgenroth

VPISOPL-3l6 (A0-35) I Oak Grove core, Westmoreland County, Va.,
Aquia Formation, orientation uncertain, 450X.

11 Turbiosphaera magnifica-cornplex
R 3020 \J (2), Office Hall core, King George County, Va., Aquia
Formation, right-lateral view, 400X.
>

-- ~-- - - - ----- -",

40
 PLATE 2

1 2 3

41
 PLATE 3

Figure
1 Muratodinium fimbriatum (Cookson &-Eisenack) Drugg
R 2668 J, Wilcox Camp core, Caroline County, Va., Nanjemoy
Formation, dorsal view, SEM, 540x.

2 Apectodinium homomorphum-complex
R 2868 I (2), Ashton core, King George County, Va., Aquia
Formation, dorsal view of dorsal surface, 375X.

3 Kallosphaeridium brevibarbatum De Coninck

VPISUPL-245 (AK-42), Popes Creek sections, Charles County, Md.,
Nanjemoy Formation, ventral view of ventral surface, SOOX.

4 Catillopsis abdita Drugg

R 3020 0 (2), Office Hall core, King George County, Va.,
Marlboro Clay, orientation unknown, 600X.

5 Lingulodinium machaerophorum (Deflandre & Cookson) Wall

R 2664 AA (2), Lake Madison core, King George County, Va., Aquia
Formation, apical view, 720X.

6 Ascostomocystis hydria Orugg & Loeblich

R 2668 J, Wilcox Camp core, Caroline County, Va., or ientation
unknown, SEM, 660X.

7 Impagidinium sp.
R 2386 E, WF-2 core, Caroline County, Va., dorsal view, SEM,
600X.

8 Wetzeliella hampdenensis Wilson

VPISUPL-266 (AL-68), Popes Creek sections, Charles County, Md.,
Nanjemoy Formation, dorsal view of dorsal surface, 320X.

9 Wilsonidium tabulatum-complex
R 2668 K, Wilcox Camp core, Caroline County, Va., Nanjemoy
Formation, dorsal view, SEM, 600X.

10 Biconidinium lonqissimum Islam

VPISUPL-241 (AK-l3), Popes Creek sections, Charles County, Md.,
Nanjemoy Formation, ventral view at mid-focus, 360X.

11 Ermnetrocysta Spa
R 2664 H (2), Lak~ Madison core, King George County, Va.,
Nanjemoy Formation, antapical view of antapex, 600X.

42
PLATE 3

7
\ '
0,..,.

8
: \

I,,~
f t- ,

~;~.~
'W l -(
H
/1
,,
10 11
43
 PLATE 4

Figure
1 Rhombodinium SPa i~.
R 2669 G (2), Lake Jefferson core, King George County, Va.,·
Nanjemoy Formation, dorsal view of dorsal surface, 430X.

2 ~chilleodinium biformoides (Eisenack) Eaton

VPISUPL-264 (At-51), Popes Creek sections, Charles County, Md.,
Nanjemoy Formation, ventral view at mid-focus, 320X.

3 Romotryblium tasmaniense Cookson & Eisenack

VPISUPL-27l (AL-93). Popes Creek sections, Charles County, Ma.,
Nanjemoy Formation, antapical view of antapex, 375X.

4 Wetzeliella varielongituda/samlandica
R 2285 W, Putneys Mill core, New Kent County, Va., Nanjemoy
Formation, dorsal view, SEM, 600X.

5 Kisselovia coleothrypta (Williams & Downie) Lentin & Williams

R 3020 AS (2), Office Rall core, King George County, Va.,
Nanjemoy Formation, dorsal view of dorsal surface, 400X.

6 Homotryblium caliculum Bujak

VPISUPL-264 (At-54), Popes Creek sections, Charles County, Md.,
Nanjemoy Formation, antapical view of antapex, 420X.

7 Homotryblium tenu iseinosum/pallidum

VPISUPL-264 (At-52), Popes Creek sections, Charles County, Md.,
Nanjemoy Formation, or ientation uncertain, 400X.

8 Hafniasphaera goodmanii Edwards

R 1895 H, Popes Creek sections, Char les County, Md., Nanjemoy
Formation, dorsal view, SEM, 600X.

9 Spinidinium SPa of Goodman, 1979

VPISUPL-337 (AG-84), Oak Grove core, Wesbnoreland County, Va.,
Nanjemoy Formation, dorsal view of ventral surface, 7S0X.

10 Wetzeliella sp. of Goodman, 1979

VPISUPL-264 (AL-52), Popes Creek sections, Cha.rles County, Md.,
;-lanjemoy Formation, ventral view at mid-focus, 350X.

44
 PLATE -4

1 2

4 5

.~- .

7 8

10

45
 them in the Paleogene of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal
Province. In: Schlee, J-. S. (ed.), Interregional
unconformities and hydrocarbon accumulations. American
Association £f Petroleum Geologists Memoir 36.
"
JAN DU CHENE, R. E.
1977 Palynostratigraphie (Maastrichtien-Eocene inferieur) des
Flyschs du Schlieren (Canton d 'Obwald, Sllisse centrale).
Revue de Micropaleontologie, 20(3):147-156.
MARTINI, E. A.
1971 Standard Tertiary and Quaternary calcareous nannoplankton
zonation. In: Farinacci, A. (ed.), Proceedings, Second
Planktonic Conference. Rome, Edizioni Tecnosciencza 2:739-
785.
MCLEAN, D. M.
1971a Organic-walled Phytoplankton from the Lower Tertiary
Pamunkey Group £f Virginia and Maryland. Unpublished PhD.
dissertation, Stanford University, 165 p.
1971b Transfer of Baltisphaeridium septatum Cookson & Eisenack,
1967, from the Acr i tarcha to the Dinophyceae. Journal of
Paleontology, 45(4) :729-730.
1972 Cladopyxidium septatum, n. gen., n. sp., possible Tertiary
ancestor of the modern dinoflagellate Cladopyxis
hemibrachiata Balech, 1964. Journal of Paleontology,
46 (6) : 861-863.
1973a Emendation and transfer of Eisenackia (Pyrrhophyta) from
the Microdiniaceae to the Gonyaulacaceae. Geologiska
Foreningens i. Stockholm Forhandlingar, 95: 261-265.
1973b A problematical dinoflagellate from the Tertiary of
Virginia and Maryland. Palaeontology, 16 (4) :729-732.
1974 Two new Paleocene dinoflagellates from Virg inia and
Maryland. Palaeontology, 17(1) :65-70.
1976 Eocladopyxis peniculatum Morgenroth, 1966, Early Tertiary
ancestor of the modern dinoflagellate pyrodinium bahamense
Plate, 1906. Micropaleontology, 22(3) :347-351.
NOGAN , D. S.
1964 Foraminifera, stratigraphy and paleoecology of the Aquia
Formation of Maryland and Virginia. Cushman Foundation for
Foraminiferal Research Special Publication 7, 50 p.
SHAW, A. B.
1964 Time in stratigraphy. McGraw-Hill, New York, 365 p.
WARD, L. W.
In press Stratigraphy and character is tic mollusks of the Pamunkey
Group (lower Tertiary) and the Old Church Formation of the
Chesapeake Group, Virginia Coastal Plain. U.S. Geological
Survey Professional Paper 1346.
WITMER, R. J.
1975 Taxonomy and biostratigraphy of; lower Tertiary
dinoflagellate assemblages from the At!antic Coastal Plain
near Richmond, Virginia. Unpublished M.S. thesis, Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University, 168 p.
WITMER, R. J., and GOODMAN, D. K.
1980 Early Tertiary Wetzeliella assemblages from the Virg inia-
Maryland (U.S.A.) Coastal Plain (abs.). Palynology, 4:254.

46
Reprinted from Frederiksen, N,Q., and Kraffi. K.. cds., 1984, Cretaceous and TCl'litiry stratigruphy, paleontology, and structure,
southweBtern Maryland and northeastern Virginia. American Association or StrAtigraphic PlI.lynologists Field Trip Volume and
Guidebook.

DINOFLAGELLATE BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE NANJEMOY FORMATION AT POPES CREEK,

SOUTHF.ASTERN MARYLAND
D. K. Goodman

ARCO Oil and Gas Company, Exploration/production Research Center, P.O.

Box 2R19, Dallas, Texas ~5221

ABSTRACT
The Lower Eocene Woodstock Hember of the Nanjemoy Formation at Popes
Creek, Charles County, Maryland, contains a well preserved, species-rich
dinoflagellate cyst assemblage. Approximately one hundred fifteen
species occur in two stratigraphically sequential sections exposed along
the eastern bank of the Potomac River; the strata also contain moderate-
ly diverse assemblages of terrestrial palynomorphs and acritarchs. The
Woodstock Member is moet likely correlative with the upper Eatonicysta
u-rsulae (LC-2) and the Kisselovia reticulata (LC-3) Assemblage Zones
(Bujak et 81., 1980) of the upper London Clay on the Isle of Wight
(equivalent--to the Wetzeliella varielongituda and lower Kisselovia
coleothrypta Zones of Costa and Downie, 1976), suggesting a middle to
late Ypresian age for these beds.

TIiTRODUCTION

The purposes of this paper are to summarize the significant aspects

of the upper Nanjemoy dinoflagellate flot'8 i..'1 tbe vicinity of the town
of Popes Creek, Maryland, located approximately 35 miles south of
Washington, D. C., to briefly document correlation of the Nanjemoy to
British sec tions using standard dinoflage lla te zones, and to es timate
probable age limits of the Nanjemoy based on dinoflagellate strati-
graphy. The two outcrop localities discussed herein are the sections
descri bed by Cla.rk and 11artin (1901) R.S Local Sections IX and X.
Section n: is located 2.0 miles north of Popes Creek; 40 feet of Woorl-
stock and 40 feet of Miocene bens a.re exposed in a vertical cliff sec-
tion here. Section X is located about 0.25 mile south of the town a.nd
contains 14 feet of upper Woodstock and 10 feet of Miocene strata. A
nearly complete Woodstock section (Section X overlies IX) can be compo8-
ited from the two localities, with a small interval of less than six
feet of unexposed and therefore ullsampled strata separating the t-II"O
sections.

A fairly comprehensive analysis of the dinoflagellates i~ the

sections has been made (Goodman, 1975), as has a detailed account of the
quantitative distribution of cyst species (Goodman, 1979). Nanjemoy
dinoflage lla tea are also reported in Virginia from ou tc rops along the
Pamunkey River, Hanover County (Witmer, 1975), and along Aquia Creek,
Stafford County (McLean, 1971), and in the U.S.G.S. Oak Grove Corehole,
Westmoreland County (Gibson ~ a1., 1980).

47
 GEOLOG Ie AND STRATIGillHIC SETTING

The Nanjemoy Formation crops out in a discontinuous, arcuate band

from north of Petersburg, Prince Georges County, Virginia, north-
northeastward to the area just south of Annapolis, Anne Arundel County,
Maryland (Text-Figure 1). It is exposeo. along the major rivers and
streams of the area, anrl the thickest and best exposed sections are
located in the bluffs along the Po toroac River. It is composed of
glauconi tic, fine-grained quartz sands that are locally calcareous and
argillaceous. Formational strike is approximately north-south, with dip
to the east at 12-15 feet per roile. The formation is 125 feet thick
(Clark and Martin, 1901) at the type locality along Nanjemoy Creek,
Charles County, Maryland; it thickens to the east to a maximum recorded
(Teifke, 1973a) thickness of 250 feet in the Emmet Taylor Well #1
loca ted on the De lmarva Peninsula, Accomack Coun ty, Vi rginia (Tex t-
Figure 1). The most recent and complete 11 tho logic (Reinhardt et a1.,
1980) and biostratigraphic (Gibson et aL, 1980) analyses Orthe
Nanjemoy Fonnation are based on Oak GroveCore samples. Nogan (1964)
and Weems (1974) postulate that there is no depositional break between
the nanjemoy Form~tion and the underlying Marlboro Clay, although paly-
nological evidence (Witmer, 1975) suggests that the contact might be, at
least locally, disconformable. R'owever, the formational contact is
gradational, due in part to biogenic reworking, and therefore difficult
to interpret lithologically pas t eener~l agreement with the biological
argument of either absence of, or presence of only a small-scalp., uncon-
formity. The upper boundary of the Nanjemoy is a major erosional sur-
face wit~ variable relief developed; the Nanjemoy is unconformably over-
lain by the middle Eocene Piney ~oint Formation, Mio~ene deposits, or by
Plio-Pleistocene sands And gravels throug~out the outcrop area.

Clark anrl Martin (1 Q01) divided the ~anjemoy ~ormation into the
Potopaco and Woodstock members, and each member was further subdivided
into a number of "zones." They are:

~anjemoy Formation
Woodstock Member ("Zones" 16-17)
Potopaco Member ("Zones" 10-15)

"Zones" through g comprise the underlying Paleocene Brightseat ann

Aquia Fonnations. The "zones" of Clark and Martin were vllriably defined
on the basis of litho logy and/or paleonto logy, and as such have little
or no biostratigraphic utility. The members are valid lithostrati-
graphic units and c.an be recognized using molluscan assemblages (Gibson
~ a1., 1980).

Teifke (1973b) indicated that the Nanjemoy was deposited on a

rather uniform, eastward sloping surface with 8 major break in slope at
the present longitudinal position of Chesapeake Bay. The formation
appears to have been deposited during the early stages of a transgres-
sive marine sequence, during which time the regional tectonic framework
of the area changed to produce a gradually expanding basin whose deepest
part shifted progressively sout~ward, and with deposition accompanied by
a rather uniform basement subsidence estimated to be from about 50 to
150 feet. Owens and Sohl (1969) indicated that the Manasquan Formation,
48
 79" 77"

PENNSYLVANIA

40'

I
I

., J
I ", 38'

VIRGINIA .........

o
I
50. . 75 100
, 36
NORTH CAROLINA MILES

Text-~igure 1. Index map of central Atlantic Coastal ?lai~ states

showing locations of Popes Creek, Maryland (star), along the Potomac
River. ~eavily shaded area indicates limits of Nanjemoy Formation
outcrop belt.

49
a correlative unit in New Jersey, was deposited under nearshore gulf to
ou ter she If conditions during a generally transgressive phase; this
agrees in general terms ri th Teifke' s (f973b) determinations, based on
his distributional map of the Nanjemoy. Gibson et al. (1980) suggest'
that the Nanjemoy was deposited in middle to innar shelf water depths.
These authors indicate an initial transgressive sequence followed by a
shallowing (coarsening) upwards trend through the formation in the well.

DllOFLAGELLA TE PLORA

Dinoflagellate cysts are the most abundant organic-walled micro-

fossil group in the Popes Creek sections. Occurrence data for 36
selected age significant species in the composite section a.re shown in
Text- Figure 2. Occurrence charts i llustra ting the stratigraphic d is-
tribution of over 100 species are illustrated in Goodman (1975). Corre-
lation and age determination of the Woodstock Member based on dinoflag-
ellate cysts are discussed in the following section.

Goodman (1979) recognized six sequential species associations in

the Woodstock l~ember based on major changes in species composition and
relative abundances, and suggested the a.ssociations might be related to
broadly defined fluctuations in local paleoenvironment along an
offshore-inshore gradient. Associations characterized by moderate to
high relative diversity and low to moderate relative dominance by a few
species were postulated to reflect a more offshore paleoenvironmental
trend. Associations characterized by low to moderate relative diversity
and moderate to high relative dominance were postulated to t'eflect a
more inshore trend. The general characteristics of each association
through the ~ection (see Text-Figure 2) are listed below:

Suggested Abundant ann/or

Paleoenvironmental Characteris tic
Association Trend Species
--------------------
F More inshore Areoligera senonensis, Ho~otI7blium
tasmaniense, Thalassiphora pela~ica,
Wetzeliella hempdenensis, ~. lunaris

E More offshore Cleistosphaeridium diversispinosum.

?Millioudodinium giuseppei. Spinifer-
ites supparus, Homotrybliurn tenuisuin-
osum. Spinidinium sp- of Goodman 1979

D t10re inshore Deflandres phost)hori tica, Wetzeliella

lunaris

C More inshore Areoligera senonensis, Hystrichokol-

porna Spa cf. ~. torquata, Phthanoperi-
dinium resistente, Thalessiphora
pelagica, Wetzeliella lunaris

B Hore offshore Cleistosphaeridium diversispinosum.

Diphyes colligerum, Kisselovia co leo-
th?Yfta, Lingulodinium machaerophorum.
Sp~n~dinium IDacmurdoense

50
 A More offshore Biconidinium 10ngiss1mum" Lingulodin-
ium machaerophorum, Spiniferites
supparus, Wetzeliella samlandica

AGE OF THE lWIJEJlOT JORJIIA'rIOB

Dinoflagellates from the basal Nanjemoy Formation in the Oak Grove

corehole (Witmer, 1984) indicate correlation with the lowermost
Estonicysta ursulae (LC-2) Assemblage Zone (Bujak ~ al., 1980) of the
middle London Clay on the Isle of Wight, England. Although the zonal
nominate species is not present in the well, correlation is based on the
lowest occurrences of Adnatosphaeridium multispinoawn (at the base of
Nanjemoy) and Spiniferi tea monilia (3 ft above the base). Bujak et al.
(1980) report the lowest occurrence Homotryblium tenuispinosum just
below the base of the zone, (as~. pallidum; at the base of the zone if
~. pallidum and ~. tenuispinosum are retained separately) which is
significantly lower (older) than its lowest occurrence both at Popes
Creek and Oak Grove (a bove the base of the Woods tock Member). Tbe
lowest occurrence of Thalassiphora pelagica is wi thin the ~. ursulae
Zone on the Isle of Wight (Bujak et a1., 1980); Witmer (1984) records
its base of consistent occurrenceatthe base of the Nanjemoy at Oak
Grove, but also reports two specimens in the Danian Brightseat Formation
about 100 ft lower in the core, in agreement with a previous report
(Whitney, 1975) of abundant !. pelagica from the Brightseat in Marylano,
east of Washington, D.C.

The boundary between the Potopaco and overlying Woodstock Members

at Oak Grove is placed at 276 feet (Gibson et a1., 1980). The lowest
occurrence of 'w'etzeliella varielongituda in thecore is in the sample
immediately above this boundary (273 feet) suggesting correlation of the
lower Woodstock strata with the Wetzeliella varielongi tuda Zone (Costa
and Downie, 1976), which is equivalent to the upper part of the
Eatonicysta ursulae Zone.

The basal Woodstock strata exposed at Popes Creek appear to be

somewhat higher (younger) than the base of the Woodstock identified at
Oak Grove. "Zone" 16 at Oak Grove is therefore represented by the
interval between 226 and 273 feet, and "Zone" 17 by the interval between
201 and ?20 feet. The intervals between sample 10 and sample A14 at
Popes Creek, and between 201 and 241 ft. at Oak Grove, are correlative
wi th the Kisselovia reticulata (LC- 3) Assemblage Zone (Bujak et 81.,
1980) of the upper London Clay, based on the lowest occurrence-of
Kisselovia coleothrypta. This datum is easily recognized at Popes Creek
and Oak Grove by the nearly simultaneous lowest occurrences of le.
coleothrypta, Spinidinium macmurdoense, ?Senegalinium asymmetricum,
Wetzeliella lunaria. and Cleistosphaeridium diversispinoaUID. The!.
reticulate Zone is equivalent to the lowermost part of the Kiaselovia
coleothrypta Zone of Costa and Downie (1976).

Based on these correlations, the ba~e of ?Millioudodinium giuse ei

in Maryland-Virginia is older (base of LC-2) than in England base of
LC-3; Costa and Downie, 1979, report its base in the Late Paleocene);
the base of Achilleodinium biformoidea in M-V is younger (upper LC-2)
than in England ( uppermost LC-1); the base of Biconidinium longissimum
51
 LOWER EOCENE SERIES
EATONICYSTA
URSULAE
KISSELOVIA RETICULATA - DINOFLAGELLATE ZONE
(LC-3) (BUJAK ET AL.. 1980)
(LC-2J

NANJEMOY (WOODSTOCK MEMBER) FORMATION

~
.
\

~
SECTION
(CLARK & MARTIN. 19(1)
\
.... ..... "ZONE"
OJ ,, ...... (CLARK & MARTIN . J90')

· 0
.... .... -t cr.... ...... N to.,) to.,) N to.,) » » » > > ...
}> »»
.......... SAMPLE DISTRIBUTION (FT)
~ ~ f~ .cr 'f ~ ~ 'ft'r'r c;' ~t
0
I
IX)
I I t f 'f
• • • • • Rottn.alla boruu/c$
• • • • • • • •• Blconldlnlum long/lOs/mum

• • • • • • • • • I W./ullella sam/andice

•• • • ••
• • • • •
I
• • •
I

I
• •
• •
• • I I
·• ...• Apleodlnlum .us/rellens.
?Cordosphn"dlum tlll/Olum
J(a/losphuridlum br.vlbllrbarum

• • • •
I I
• • • • • • • Ph/hlnoparldlnlum resislenl.
I
• • • • • • • I
•• !.Iura/od/nium /imbrielum

• • • • I
• • • I
• • • • Senttgal/nlum dl/wynens.

• • • • • • ••• I
••• • Imp/ll/osphtl8fldlum rugosum

• • • I I
• • • • • Ps/l~cystodlnium gollowense
I
• • • • • •
I
• • I
• • • • • • I Achill.odinium bilormoides

• • • • • •I I
• I
• • • • • Adn8tosphe8fidlum mul/lsplnosum
I
• • • • • • I
• • • • • • • • • • • C.f1JrJop$ls wardenensls

•• • • • • • I
• • • • • • • • • Diphyes collig~m

I
• • • •• • • • • I ?Mlllloudodlnium gluseppel

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The/us/phora p&/eglcJl

• • • • • • • W"lellelle varle/ong/luds

• • • • • • • Psucisphuridium Inw1fsibucc/num

• • • • • • • • • • EocllJdopy;ltIs pen/cula la

• • • • • • • Splfliferlles pSfiudolurC8lus

• • • • • • • • • DellandfIJs phosphoflllCil
, • • • • • • • • • Acl1omosphaera crassipellls

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • CI./s/osph88ridlum dNerslspinolum

• • • • • • • ?SeneglJlnlum //.symmelr/cil

• • • • • • • • Systems/ophof//. p/sCllcef)/hlJ

• • • • • • • Xlsse/ovis co/eolhrypllJ

• •• • • I Fibrocyst. IIJPpeCOII

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • W,Hztliellfl lunalls

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • Wetzell,lIa nlmpdenens/s

• • • • Homo/rybllutn csliculum

• • • • • Homo/rybllum ,enuispinosum
-. We/laliell//. sp. 01 Goodman 1979

• • • • • • • Homotrybllum tasmanl.nsa

• • • • • • • Splnidlnlum sp. 01 Goodman 1979

l>
I CD
I ()
I 0 I . ..,)
I I m
" I~
CYST ASSOCIATION
(GOOOMAN. 1979)

Text-Figure 2. Occurrence chart for selected dinoflagellate species in

the Nanjemoy section (Woodstock Member) composited from two outcrop
localities near Popes Creek.

52
is somewhat older (uppermost LC-2) than in England (base of LC-3): the
base of Impletosphaeridium rugoswn is considerably older (uppermost
LC-2) than in England (within HomotrybliUJll abbreviatum (B-1) Assemblage
Zone in the lower Bracklesham. Beds); and the base of Homot:rwbliwn
caliculum is considerably older (base of LC-3) than in En-g land ~i thin
Heteraulacacysta porosa. (BAR-1) Assemblage Zone _ in the Middle Eocene
lower Barton Beds in southern England). IslBlll. (1983a,b) considers the
base of the Homotryblium abbreviatum (B-1) Zone to be older than
estimated by Bujak et a1. (1980) and to coincide with the base of the
LC-3 Zone in the upper part of the London Clay Division 1) on the Isle of
Sheppey. Costa and Downie (1979) report H. 'lbbreviatum in their lower
Kisse lovis coleothrypta Zone on the "Rockall Plateau. thus providing
apparent parti'll support for Islam's interpretation.

The dinoflagellate data therefore indicate the Nanjemoy Formation

in this area is no older than the base of the Eatonicysta ursulae Zone
and no younger than t'l1.e uppermost Homotryblium abbreviatum (B-1) Zone
(the upper limit of the Nanjemoy is difficult to determine reliably due
to lack of index forms within the interval equivalent to the middle and
upper B-1 Zone; palynologically barren and therefore undatable Bagshot
sands above the London Clay which may correspond to upper Nanjemoy; and
difficulties in detennining the oldest probable age of the basal B-1
Zone and its relationship to the underlying LC-3 Zone (Islam, 1983a).
The correlative London Clay to Lower Bracklesham sequence represented by
this interval belongs to NP11-NP13 (Berggren et a1.. in press, and J.
Hardenbol, pers. comm.). The Potopaco Member is-equivalent to the basal
Eatonicysta ursulae (LC-2) Zone to the top of the Dracodinium similis
Zone (Costa and Downie, 1976), and thus belongs to NF11. The Woodstock
Member is equivalent to the basal Wetzeliella varielongituda Zone
(uppermost LC-2), the Kisselovia reticulata (LC-3) Zone, and a part
( perhaps all?) of the Homotryblium abbreviatum (B-1) Zone (contingent
upon accurate definition of the base of (B-1)), and thus belongs to NP12
and to an unknown part (or perhaps all given current uncertabties) of
NP1'3. Hazel et a1. (in press) indicated the top of the Nanjemoy as
corresponding to the top of Chronozone 23. which suggests a mid-NP13
upper limi t for the Woodstock. This may represent a more precise
determination than is possible using dinoflagellate correlations alone;
rgsults r.aseri on riinoflagellates herein would comfortably agree with
that upper limit. Summarizing, these da.ta suggest an e):].rly (but not
earliest as suggested by Hazel et 81., in press) to late (but not
latest) Ypresian age for the Nanjemoy-rQrmation.

53
BERGGREN, W. A•• KENT. D. V., and FLYNN, J. J.
in press Paleogene geochronology and chronostratigraphy.

BUJAK, J. P., DOWNIE, C.• EATON, G.L., and WILLIAMS. G.L.

1980 Dinoflagellate cysts and acritarchs from the Eocene of
southern England. Special Papera in Palaeontology 24:1-100.

CLARK 1 W. B., and MARTIN. G. C.

'1901 The Eocene deposits of Maryland. Maryland Geological Survey,
Eocene Volume: 331 pp.

COSTA. L. I. and DOWNIE, C.

1976 The distribution of the dinoflagellate Weheliella in the
Paleogene of north-west Europe. Palaeo:ntolo gy • 19:591-614.

1979 Cenozoic dinocyst stratigraphy of Sites 403 to 406 (Rockall

Plateau). !POD. Leg 48. Initial Reports of the ~ Sea
Drilling Project 48:513-529.

GIBSON, T. G., at al.

Biostratigraphy of the Tertiary strata of the ~ore, in
Geology of the Oak Grove Core. Virginia Division of Mi:ner81
Resources Publication 20:14-30.

r,OODMAN. D. K.
1975 Lower Eocene rtinoflagellate assemblages from the Maryland
coastal pl~in south of Washington, D. C., unpubL M.S.
thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University:
298 pp.

1979 Dinoflagellate "communities" from the Lower Eocene Nanjemoy

Formation of Maryland, U.S.A. Palynology 3:169-190.

HAZEL, J. E., EDWARDS, L. E • • and BYBELL. L. M.

in press Significant unconformities and the hiatuses represented by
them in the Paleogene of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal
Province.

ISLAM, M. A.
1983a Dinoflagellate cysts from the Eocene cliff sections of the
Isle of Sheppey, southeast Sngland. Revue de Micropaleon-
tologie 25:231-250.

, 983b Dinoflagella.te cysts from the Eocene of the London and the
Hampshire Basins, southern England. Palynology 7:71-92

McL8AN. D. M.
1971 Organic-walled phytoplankton from the Lower Tertiary Pamunkey
Group of Virginia and Maryland, unpubl. ~.D. dissert.,
Stanforn University: 165 pp.

54
NOGAN, D. S.
1964 Foraminifera, stratigraphy and paleocology of the Aquia Forma-
tion of Maryland and Virginia. Cushman Foundation for Fora-
miniferal Research Special Publication Number 7:50 pp-.--

OWENS, J. P., AND SOHL, N. F.

1969 Shelf and deltaic paleoenvironments in the Cretaeous-Tertiary
formations of the New Jersey Coastal Plain, in S. Sibutsky
(ed.), Geology of selected areas in New Jersey and eastern
Pennsylvania, Rutgers University Press: 235-278.

REINHARDT, J., NEWELL, '1/. L., AUD MIXON, R. B.

1980 Tertiary lithostratigraphy of the core, in Geology of the Oak
Grove Core. Virginia Division of MineraI Resources Publica-
tion 20:1-13.

T13IFKE, R. !-t.
1973a Stratigraphic units of the Lower Cretaceous through Miocene
series, in Geologic Studies, Coastal Plain of Virginia.
Virginia DiviSion of Mineral Research Bulletin 83 pt. 1:1-7~.

1973b Paleogeology 0 f F.arly Cretaceous through Miocene time, in

Geologic Studies, Coastal Plain of Virginia. Virginia Divi-
sion of Mineral Resources Bulletin 83, pt. 2:79-98.

WEEMS, R. :So
1975 Geology of :-!anover Academy and Ashland Quadrangles, Virginia,
unpub. M.S. thesiS, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University: 98 pp.

1.>lITMER. !L J.
1975 ~ayonomy and biostratigraphy of Lo~er ~ertiary dinoflagellate
assemblages fror.J the Atlantic Coastal Plain Near Richmond,
Virginia, unpubl. M.S. theSis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State Uni'/ersity: 176 pp.

55
56
Reprinted from Frederiksen, N.D ., and !{ram, K.. eds., 1984. Cretaceous and Tertiary stratigra.phy, paleontology, and structure,
southwestern Maryland a.nd no)"thwe8.lltern Virginia, American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologist.s Field Trip Volume
and Guidebook .
. LOWER TERTIA·RY POLLEN BIOSTRATIGRAPHY, M1.RYLAND AND VIRGINIA

N. O. Frederiksen

U.S. Geological Survey, 970 National Center, Reston, Virginia 22092

Lower Tertiary strata in Maryland and Virginia are rich in

palynomorphs as well as in calcareous mega- and microfossils. In this
paper, I present the known ranges of 52 pollen taxa in the Br ightseat
Formation (lower Paleocene), Aquia Formation (upper Paleocene), Marlboro
Clay ( upper Pal eocene and ? lowermost Eocene), and Nanjemoy Forma t ion
(lower Eocene) in the Potomac River region.

Previous studies on early Tertiary spores and pollen grains from

Maryland and Virginia include abstracts by Brenner and Patricelli (1977)
on the Marlboro Clay of Maryland, and by Brenner et~. (1979) on the
upper part of the Aquia Formation, the Marlboro Clay, and the lower part
of the Nanjemoy Formation of Maryland; and papers by Groot and Groot
(1962) on the Brightseat Formation of Maryland and by Frederiksen (1979,
and in Gibson et a1., 1980) on the Aquia Formation, Marlboro Clay, and
NanjelTOY Formationof northern Virginia. In the present paper, I have
summarized data from Frederiksen (1979) and have included some previously
unpublished data of mine on G,e Brightseat Formation of Maryland.

Text-Figure 1 shows observed ranges of significant pollen taxa in

Paleocene and lower Eocene strata of southern Maryland and northern
Virginia. Data on the Brightseat Formation are from study of t~ree
samples from Cabin Branch, Prince Georges County, Md. (locality 1 of
Text-Figure 2; locality HL 34 of Razel, 1968). This locality is 2.2
miles southwest of the stratotype locality of t.'le Brightseat (locality 2
of Text-Figure 2). The Brightseat samples of Groot and Groot (1962) came
from Addison Road (locality HL 33 of Hazel, 1968), O.S mile sout~west of
the Cabin Branch site. My samples were collected by L. M. Bybell and D.
L. Govoni and are from the middle part of the Brightseat, from 2.5,5.5,
and 6.6 ft, respectively, below the top of the formation. I avoided
samples from the lower part of the formation that conta in reworked
Cretaceous material (Razel, 1968; palynomorphs from the Brightseat
Formation illustrated by Groot and Groot (1962) include several reworked
from the Cretaceous), and I also did not examine samples from the upper
part of the formation, which has burrows filled with Aquia material
(Hazel, 1968, 1969).

Data on the Aquia Formation, Marlboro Clay, and Nanjemoy Formation

in Text-Figure 1 are from the U.S. Geological Survey Oak Grove core in
Westmoreland County, Va. (locality 10 of Text-Figure 2). Pollen data on
th is core were published by Freder i~sen (1979, and in Gibson et al"
1980) • The Oak Grove borehole was cored from a depth of 80 ft to 13S0
ft, including strata of Barremian?, Aptian, Albian, Paleocene, Eocene,
and Miocene ages (Gibson et a1., 1980; Reinhardt et a1., 1980). The
lowest 41 ft of Paleocene section in the core, from 454to 413 ft depth I

is of uncertain age because it lacks calcareous fossils. This interval

contains some palynomorphs of Brightseat (early Paleocene) age, for
example Danea mutabilis Morgenroth 1968, Palaeoperidinium pyrophorum
(Ehrenberg 1838) Sarjeant 1967, Pseudoplicapollis cf. P. endocuspis
57
Tschudy 1975, Choanopollenites cf. C. consanquineus Tschudy 1973,
Choanopo llen i tes? sp., and Choanopo llen i tee conspicuus (Groot & Groot
1962) Tschudy 1973. However, the early Paleocene pollen grains, at
least, are rare in these samples, and they occur in this interval of the
core together with abundant carya pollen grains that are not found below
the upper Paleocene in the Gulf Coast or in South carolina. Because
Carya pollen has not been observed in the Br ightseat Formation in its
stratotype area, it is clear that the lowest part of the Paleocene
section in the oak Grove core is younger than the stratotype Brightseat,
and appears to be late Paleocene (Aquia) in age but containing reworked
early Paleocene palynomorphs. Although I am sure that rocks correlative
with the stratotype Brightseat are missing from the oak Grove core
section, the lowermost preserved Tertiary in the core could possibly
represent rocks missing by unconformity between the Brightseat and the
overlying Aquia in the stratotype area of the Brightseat.

Except for the rare early Paleocene specimens in the lowest part of
the Paleocene section of the core, the rest of the pollen taxa in this
interval are the same as those occurring higher, in definite Aquia
Formation. To avoid confusion because of the probable reworking, I have
not shown the lowest part of the cored Paleocene section in Text-Figure
1.

Text-Figure 1 shows that the Brightseat, Aquia, Marlboro, and

Nanjemoy formations all have distinctive pollen assemblages. Differences
between the Brightseat and the Aquia are not surprising because, at least
in the stratotype area of the Brightseat, these formations are separated
by a disconformity in which calcareous nannofossil zones NP 4 and the
upper half of NP 3 are missing (Bybell and Govoni, 1977 i Bybell, oral
commun., 1984). Neither the Brightseat nor the Aquia can be subdivided
biostratigraphically using pollen on the basis of present knowledge,
except that the uppermost sample of the Aquia has many pollen taxa in
common with the Marlboro. The lower and upper parts of the Marlboro are
different because the lower part of the formation contains Paleocene
species not known elsewhere to range into the Eocene, such as
Retitrescolpites angulo1uminosus (Anderson 1960) Frederiksen 1979 (Text-
Figure 1, no. 7), Momipites strictus Frederiksen & Christopher 1978 (8),
Choanopollenites alabamicus (Srivastava 1972) Frederiksen 1979 (20), and
Piolencipollis endocuspoides Freder iksen 1979 (21). The upper part of
the Marlboro contains sparse pollen of Platycarya platycaryoides (Roche
1969) Frederiksen & Christopher 1978 (44), which is basically an Eocene
species although it may possibly range (as rare specimens) down into the
uppermost Paleocene in the Gulf Coast. The upper part of the Marlboro
also contains the Paleocene species Momipites flexus Frederiksen 1979
(25) and Kyandopollenites anneratus Stover in Stover et a1. 1966 (26),
which are known elsewhere only from the Paleocene. The Nanjemoy
Formation, on the other hand, contains a rich Eocene pollen assemblage.

Litholcq ically, the greensand of the Aquia grades up in to the gray

to red clay of the Marlboro, and the Marlboro clay grades up into the
greensand of the NanjeTOCly. calcareous microfossils are absent from the
Marlboro, and mollusks are rare, but the overlap within this formation of
pollen spec ies restr icted elsewhere to the Paleocene or Eocene, and the
physical stratigraphic evidence, indicate that deposition was more or

58
 '"
S
~
i:
~
C
t;
~ .?
~ ~
~ ~
"< %
Q
~

~
0 ;?;
'"..,
It'
~
:%

;
C)
~ g :z:
1;::
~ ,: &' ~ I!t
~
~

I
I ·
·
...z '1°
yOlltSIAN NANJEMOY
~
·

rIll I
:r

II
Text-Figure 1. Observed ranges of significant pollen taxa in Paleocene
and lower Eocene s tea ta of sou the rn Mary land and nor the rn V irg in i a .
D
"Depth for the Aguia, Marlboro, and Nanjeroc>y Formations is depth in
the Oak Grove core, Virginia; "depth" for the Brightseat Formation is
distance below the top of the formation in outcrop at Cabin Branch,
Maryland. Ab901u te ages are from Hazel et ala (in press). MPP
complex ~ Momipites-Plicatopollis-Platycaryapollenites complex of
Freder iksen (1979). Several taxonomic names used here are different
from those of Frederiksen (1979): see Table 1.

59
Text-Figure 2. Sampling localities of this paper, stratotype or
lectostratotype localities of lower Tertiary Formations, and Tertiary
stops of this field trip.
1. cabin Branch sampling locality (Brightseat Formation) •
2. Stratotype locality of the Brightseat Formation (no longer
accessible) .
3. Town of Upper Mar Iboro. The stratotype locali ty of the Mar Thoro
Clay was described by Clark and Martin (1901) as being in this
vicinity.
4. Field tr ip stop 4.
5.- Field trip stop 5; lectostratotype locality of the Aquia
Formation.
6. Field trip stop 6.
7. Pield trip stop 7.
8. Field trip stop 8.
9. Lectostra to type locality of the NanjeIOOY Formation.
10. Location of the Oak Grove corehole.

less continuous from the Paleocene Aquia Formation across the Marlboro
Clay and into the Eocene Nanjemoy Formation. In contrast, a small
unconformity occurs between Paleocene and Eocene formations in the
eastern Gulf Coast (Frederiksen et al., 1982) and in South carolina (Gohn
eta 1., 1983). In nor thern Virg in 1a, pollen grains ind ica te that the
PalecK:ene-Eocene boundary is either within the upper part of the Marlboro
or within the Marlboro-Nanjemoy gradational contact zone. Whether the
Nanjemoy can be subdivided biostratigraphically using pollen remains to
be determined by examining other sections of this formation.

Table 1. Names used in this paper that are different from those in
Frederiksen 1979, Text-Figure 2.

Taxon number,
Text-Figure 1,
This paper this paper Freder iksen 1979

Bombacacidites reticulatus 16 Intratriporopollenites

Krutzsch 1961 reticulatus (Groot &
Groot 1962)
Frederiksen 1979
Insulapo11enites sp. 9 Cupan Ie id i tes? sp.
Plicatoeollis triradiata 14 Plicatopollis lunata
type
(Nichols 1973) Frederiksen
& Christopher 1978
Porocolpopollenites ollivierae 11 Riestedtipollis? sp.
(Gruas-Cavagnetto 1976)
Frederiksen 1983
60
 / ,
WASHINGTON
D. C.
'\. , , f,;\
" 0
/
/
/ CD
/
/
/
/

(@
0 5 10 15 MILES
I [
!
I I
I
I
I

0 5 1°61 15 20 KILOMETERS
References Cited

BRE:ilNER, G.J., and PATRICELLI, J.

1977 palynology of the Marlboro Clay (Eocene) from Pr ince Georges
County, Maryland (abs.). Palynology, 1: 171-172.
BRDllNER, G.J., PATRICELLI, J., and RACHELE, L.
1979 Palynology of the Paleocene-Eocene sediments from PGOf-35 well,
Prince Georges County, Maryland (U.S.A.) (abs.) Palynology,
3: 280.
BYRELL, L.M., and GOVONI, D.L.
1977 Preliminary calcareous nannofossil zonation of Br ightseat and
Aquia Formations (Paleocene) of Maryland and Virginia--
stratigraphic implications (abs.). AIDer ican Association of
Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, 61: 773-774.
CLARK, W.B., and MARTIN. G.C.
1901 The Eocene deposits of Maryland. Maryland Geolog ieal Survey,
Eocene Volume, p. 1-92, 122-204.
FREDERIKSEN, N.O.
1979 Paleogene sporomorph biostratigraphy, northeastern Virginia.
PalynologY, 3: 129-167.
FREDERIKSEN, N.O., GIBSON, T.G., and BYBELL, L.M.
1982 Paleocene-Eocene boundary in the eastern Gulf Coast: Gulf
Coast Assoc iation ~ Geolog ical Soc ieties, Transactions, 32:
289-294.
GIBSON, T.G., ANDREWS, G.W., BYBELL, L.M., FREDERIKSEN, N.O., HANSEN, T.,
RAZEL, J.E., MCLEAN, D.M., WITMER, R.J., and vm NIEUWENHUISE, D.S.
1980 Biostratigraphy of the Tertiary strata of the core. In:
Geology of the Oak Grove core. Virginia Div i5ion of Mineral
Resources Publication, 20: 14-30.
GOHN, G.S., HAZEL, J.E., BYBELL, L.M., and EDWARDS, L.E.
1983 The Fishburne Formation (lower Eocene), a newly defined
subsurface unit in the South Carolina Coastal Plain. U.S.
Geological Survey Bulletin, 1537-C: CI-C16.
GROOT, J.J., and GROOT, C.R.
1962 Some plant microfossils from the Brightseat Formation
(Paleocene) of Maryland. Palaeontographica, Abteilung ~ ill:
161-171.
HAZEL, J.E.
1968 Ostracodes from the Brightseat Formation (Danian) of
Maryland. Journal of Paleontology, 42: 100-142.
1969 Faunal evidence for an unconformity between the Paleocene
Brightseat and Aquia Formations (Maryland and Virginia). u.s.
Geological Survey Professional Paper, 650-C: C58-C65.
HAZEL, J.E., EDWARDS, L.E., and BYBELL, L.M.
In press Significant unconformities and the hiatuses represented by ;.

them in the Paleogene of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal

Province. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir.
REINHARDT, J., NEWELL, W.L., and MIXON, R.B.
1980 Tertiary lithostratigraphy of the core. In: Geology of the
Oak Grove core. Virginia Division of Mineral Resources
Publication, 20: 1-13.

62

"
r
Composition and biogeographic significance of the gastropod
mollusk fauna of the Brightseat Formation (Paleocene: Danian) of
Maryland
By David L. Govoni
U.s. Geological Survey. Reston, VA 22092
INTRODUCTION
Bennett and Collins (1952) first
recognized the presence or a discrete.
marine sedimentary unit between the
Upper Cretaceous Severn Formation and
the upper Paleocene Aquia Formation in
the lower Potomac River Valle, near
Washington, D.C. They named this
deposit the Brightseat Formation.
Calcareous nannofossils place the
Brightseat Formation in the early
Paleocene (Danian) Zone NP 3 of Martini
(1971). There is very Jittle published
data on either the composition or
significance or the molluscan macrofauna
of the Brightseat, whieh constitutes the
only diverse and reasonably
well-preserved, early Paleocene
molluac.an assemblage in the Atlantic
Coastal Plain. ThOle studies that did
focus upon the mollusb (for example,
Kauffman and Beauchmnp, 1989;
Bretsky, 1974; Bretsky and Kauffman,
1977) dealt primarily with the Bivalvia..
Govoni (1983) provided an extensive
treatment of the taxODomy and
or
biogeography the Brightseat gastropod
fauna.
This paper presents a summary of the
Brightseat gastropod fauna and provide&
a prelimjnAry comparison with several
gastropod assemblages of similar age in
the Gulf Coastal Plain of North America,
West Greenland, and the Northwest
European Tertiary Basin. For a more
63
complete treatment of these topics see
Govoni (1983). See Gibson and others
(this guidebook) for a discussion of the
distribution. oomposition, and
lithostratigraphy of the Brightseat
Formation and Bybell and Gibson (this
guidebook) for a discussion of the age of
the Brightseat Formation.
CORREl"ATION OF THE
BRIGHTSEAT FORMATION
Due to ita location on the western
margin of the NOrth Atl&ntic Ocean
Basin. the Brigl1tseat FOrmation occupies
a by position far transatlantic
correlation and biogeographic comparison
with macrofossiUferoua, lOwer Paleocene
deposita around the periphery of the
basin. Fieure 1 is a pneralized .
correlation chart, based on a synthesis of
nUIDerous paleontologic:a1 and
stratigraphical studies (see, for example,
Cats.. 1982; Frederiksen .a nd others,
1982; Gibson and others, 1982; Hazel and
othen, 1984; Toulmin, 1977), that
summarizes the age and relative
stratigraphic relationships between the
Brightseat Formation and other
Paleocene-age units that are exposed in
the Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plains of
North America. Texas and Alabama
were selected as broadly charac:teriBtic of
the stratigraphic sequence of the western
and eastern halves, respectively, of the
 GUlF COAS
CALCAREOUS
(MAli EPOCHS I STAGES IFORAM""'F!AAl
7rA11:411
I NANNOF088IL
ZONES MARYlAND
(EASTERN)
AlABAMA
(MARllNI,1911)
MARLBORO

W W
.'". '" ClAY TUSCAHOMA
FORMAT~

601 Z ~ SELANDIAN P4 AOUIA NANAFAliA

W ~
FORMATION
FORMAn ON
NP6
() p~ b
0 NP4
W >-
--' c
[
.....J a: NP3
«Cl. DANIAN P1
651 «
ill
b NP2 CLAYTON
FORMATION
a NP 1 - - - - - ~

FIGURE 1. Generalized oonelstlon chart showing aeleded Paleocene "ratlgraphle units prne~ In the autr
and Allantlc Coastal PlaIns of North America. Data complied from numerous SOUrt:89.
Gulf Coastal Plain and because gastropod
assemblages from the Paleocene portions
of these sections are better documented
than those from elsewhere in the region.
Figure 2 is a generalized correlation
chart that compares the Brightseat
Formation to selected Paleocene units
around the northern and eastern
periphery of the North Atlantic Ocean
Basin that contain diverse and well-
known gastropod assemblages. The
correlationa presented are compiled from
numerous sources (for example.
Anderson. 1982; Berggren, 1964, 1971;
Hooybergha, 1980; International
Geological Correlation Programme, 1980,
1988; Kollmann and Peel, 1983, Marliere,
1977; Rasmussen, 1965; Robaszynski,
1979).
The Brightseat Formation is
correlated with the Tehuacana Member
of the upper Kincaid Formation in the
Gulf Coastal Plain of Texas (fig I).
Farther east in Alabama. the Brightseat
is equivalent to the MeBryde Limestone
Member of the Clayton Formation and. in
western Alabama, to the 10wer member"
of the Portera Creek Formation. Across
the Atlantic Ocean, the Brightseat
Formation COtTelates with the
!llaCrOfossiliferous marine beds of the
Agatdal and upper Kangilia Formations
in West Greenland (fig. 2). In the
Northwest European Tertiary Basin. the
Tuft'eau de Ciply in the lower part of the
Mons Formation in Belgium and the
middle and upper parts of the Danian
limestone Formation (Coral and
Bryozoan Limestone to Crania
Limestone) of Denmark are equivalent in
age to the Brightseat Formation.
GASTROPOD FAUNA OF THE
BRIGHTSEAT FORMATION
Diverse and well-preserved molluscan
faunas of Danian age are scalce and
65
widely scattered around the margin of
the North Atlantic Basin. By virtue of
its moderately high diversity and its
geographic position relative to
assemblages of similar age, the gastropod
fauna of the Brightseat Formation is well
suited for transatlantic faunal
comparison and biogeographic analysis.
Its position in the Atlantic Coastal Plain
Province places it in an intel'm.e diate
geographic position with respect to
penecontemporaneous faunas in the Gulf
Coastal Plain, West. Greenland, and
northwestern Europe (fig. 3).
CompoaitioD of the gaatropod fauna
The gastropod fauna ofthfl Brightseat.
Formation consists of 52 species or forms
that represent 44 genera and subgenera
and 22 families (table 1). Half of these
tau are new species (Govoni, 1983).
Mesogastropods, which are represented
by 35 species or forms, dominate the
fauna. Cephalaspida follow with seven
species. while the neogastropoda and
entomotaeniates are represented by four
species each. The archaeogastropoda and
notaspida. are both represented by a
single species. Mesogast.ropods also
dominate the fauna at the generic level
and comprise nearly two-thirds of the
total gastropod genera in the Brightseat.
Mesogastropod dominance is
comparable to similar patterns seen in
other early PaJeocene faunas (for
example, Rosenkrantz, 1970 and
KoUmann and Peel. 1983 far the Agatdal
Formation; Glibert, 1973 for the Calcaire
de Mona; and Toulmin, 1977 for the
Clayton Formation). Meeogastropods in
these faunas account for between 40%
(Agatdal) and 62% (Clayton) of the total
genera preserved in these faunas.
 CI) rJ)

~ ~J NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN MARGIN

LLO CJ) 0 N mC/)Nr::.
~~ :r: ffiC!) 5=~1
zO;J Q) WESTERN I NORTH-CENTRAL I EASTERN
z 41( () ~ .... w~~
Q~ 0 c( ~~~ ~O~
~~ 0.. ~ 5~g ~~~I U.S.A. WEST
:t> W c.. ~m O;~ MARYLAND GREENLAND BELGIUM DENM

ft Z

62~ ~I
1:5 ~~ P lElliN
~ a GREEN

P2
NP4 C CAl D
~ I 63-f W 'r-r----1 -~~-----
Zw ~ CALCAIRE
41( GHUN
DE

o c ~
M~ 0 ~
W z (f) ~
~ ~ < NP 3 BRIGHTSEAT ~ TUFFEAU DE ~
'"'" a: Z FORMATION :t CIPLY ~
a.. < <" P1 KANGILIA I- CORA
65~ W C FORMATION f:3 BRYO
~ LIMES

b I ~""""""'~"~ . ~""''''''''''''''\I ~ 41(

.
~ CERITl1l
. Q
----
I 66j I I bdNP1 ~~~~;
FlGURE2 .
 - It
•

80 0 60 0 30 Q 0°
FIGURE 3. Paleogeographic reconstruction of the region surrounding the North Atlantic Ocean BarNo c:turtng the ea
0'
showing distrbJUoo of land (sUppled) and water masses, and locations Danian to early Selandlan faunas ,,88
Texas; Al. - Alabama; MD. Marytand; WG - West Greenmnd; B • BeAg!um; D - Oenmartt). ReJattve poaIUons pt c
and paleolatitudes and longitudes OU1l1necJ on map are based upon the Paleocene map 01 SmIIh and Briden (1~77).
dala compiled 'rom numerous sources. i
 TABLE 1
SYSTEMATIC LIST AND RELATIVE ABUNDANCE OF GASTROPODS
FOUND IN THE BRIGHTSEAT FORMATION
Total Spec:Iea Abundance n.ta Agrept.ed by 0e1DlA&b!iv1l1Ul:
R. Rare (1-9 IndMclDat.>; C • Common (lG-99l.!ldMduals); A • AbDDdaD& (100 or DIOn! inclividuat.)

Number ot Spede8 Rel&dw

~ p.mO, Genu I ~SubllVDUl Or'Ot'ID8~ AbllDdaace
AlopoVw,,____
~ AtaphrtdM ._------ '- - -
1
-- . ~ __II_.__ __ 0_--
Meqaatn>poda I.acuJUd •• lAt:un4(P~ 1 II
MtJdoriDpBU ~ 1 II
VitriJleWdae T~ 1 C
\fUrIJwUa (VitrWHDpc) 1 II
~ 2 II
aC£rc::ul»a- 1 II
~ 1 II
~ 1 II
An:hit.ectoniddu Psc~ 1 II
An:AUc1Dlllm (G~) 1 II
Al'o\Uelonim (SWJ.o.zJ..p) 1 R
1'IlnitelUdae R~ 1 A
RlUUII4I.orl :I A
Torquaao 1 A
q. TOI"C'Ul4 1 R
Slp&aGlI4 1 C
Mathildidaa Mo.thi.ldtJ (MctJallda)
Mt1i.hild4 ('lib.6ri4U.lW
~III
"1
2
C
C
II
Tubo1 1 II
Epftonildae Cin0tnJfa4 ~ 1 C
ClnIolrvrt.a (CDroraU1cGJ.a) 1 C
EuHmidae EulUruJ 2 C
Eulimldae7· PaAtlwJUJ 1 R
Aporrhaidu Aporrhaid. avn.. IUld .p. lndet.. 1 R
Strombtda.e CalyplraphlInu 1 C
Calyptraeid&e Calypt:rtuo 1 A
Nattddae NI!rJD'UG. (Ner>UiJ4j 1 A

Neogastropoda Buacl.nl.dae Lod1li4 1 C

SlpMlvJJa 1 C

Ollvldae PanuIollDa 1 II
Vuldae Pyropm,., 1 R

EntolDDUeniata PyramidaUidae M,naiM (EvaJ.m) 1 R

~ (Bra.elay.tomio) 1 It
SyrrwUJ (Pu.~ 1 C
CnoMll4 1 C

Cepbalupidea Acteoniw k~ 1 II
T0TnI1U1Uu4 (TOnl4J,tUaeQJ 1 A
CmUl4bWm 1 R
Rlngiculidaa Gilbuti.ruJ 1 C
ActeocinidM ZiUurnliA 1 C
Scapbandrida.e ScapNuuJ.u (Pri.sctJpluutdD-) 1 A
Retusidae /Ulluto (CylkluWuJ) 1 C

Nota 8pi dea UmbracuUdae UmbracuhJm1 1 R

68
Abundance of the gastropod fauna
Most genera in the Brightseat fauna
are represented by only a few individuals
of single species or forms (table 1). Only
six genera or subgenera. occur abundantly
in the fauna; another fifteen genera are
common; the rema;nin, majority of the
taxa are rare in occurrence.
Of the most abundant genera, two _
belong to the mesogastropod family
Tun-itellidae. The mOlt commonly
represented genua (including two species
ranked individually u abundant) is
Haustator; the second moat common is
Torquesia. Two other mesogastropods,
Neverita and Calyptraea. also rank
amonr the dominant farms. The
remaining two moat abundant genera
include the cephalaspida TomatelUu4
and ScapluvuUr.
Among the common genera is a
second turritellid genua (Sipaesalill).
Other common mesogastropod genera
include TeinostDmtJ, Mo.tJa-ilda, EuUma,
CalyptrtJphDnu, and CirsotremtJ. Two
neogaatropod re~ Lacinia and
Siphonalia, are also rather common, as
are two entomotaeniatea" SYrM/4 and
Creon.ella. Three cephalaspids.
Gilbertina, ZikkW'Otio., and Retusa are
also common.
The numerical dominance or the
turritellida in the Brightseat gastropod
fauna suggesta an ec:ological similarity to
other Turrltella·rlch assemblaps in both
modern (Thorson, 1957; Allmon, 1988)
and ancient environments (Merriam.
19(1). Similar assemblages occur in the
Upper CretaceoU8 of the Atlantic Coastal
Plain (Sohl, 1977), the lower Paleocene
Kincaid Formation (Gardner, 1935) and
Clayton Formation (Lowe, 1933; Toulmin.
1977) in the Gulf Coastal Plain, and in
the late Paleocene Aquia Formation of
Maryland and Vu-ginia (Clark and
Martin. 1901). Similarly. in Europe,
Anderson (1975; 1976) reported that one
69
species of Haustator is the most
abundant and two other turritellids rank
amonl the most common pstropods in
the late Danian to early Selandian age
H(lckelhoven Member in the Lower Rhine
Embayment of Germany.
It is interesting to note that these
turritellid.dominated uaemblagea are
generally, though not always, associated
with inner-shelf(upper neritic), marine
soft.iubatrate deposita (Merriam, i941;--
Allmon, 1988). The Brightseat, however,
probably was deposited in deeper,
possibly middle neritic, depths (Gibson
and others, this guidebook), near the
lower limit of the turritellid's typical
depth range. Al1mon (1988) noted that
several modern turritellida live at depths
greater than 100 meters. The presence
or abundant turritellids in the Brightseat
cannot be used. as evidence or a shallOw·
water origin for the formation.
Faunaiaftinjties otthe pstropoda
Two factors hamper a detailed
regional comparison and precise
biogeographic analysis-or the fauna.
First, the large proportion of new species
recognized in the Brightseat fauna gives
it a highly endemic character. Second,
most of the available monograpm.:
studies of contemporaneous faunas are
out of date and in need of extensive
taxonomic revision, particularly at the
species level These two problema make
compariSon of the faunas at the species
level highly unreliable. In order to
ovel'a)me these problems in the present
study, comparisons of gastropod faunas
were undertaken at the generic (and
subgenaric) level The generic level is
amenable to fast and accurate taxonomic
revision and is less susceptible to
sampling bias than are studies based
upon species·level OCCUlTence data.
~neric·level comparison provides
information about faunal affinities that
allows meaningful comparisons among
gastropod assemblages.
For the present study, three primary
and six secondary geographic divisions of
the North Atlantic Ocean Basin margin
are recognized (table 2). These
subdivisions provide a convenient and
meaningful geographU: Cramework within
wbich to compare Paleocene gastropod
faunas. Within the six secondary
divisions, there are ten lithologic units
ranging in age from early Danian to
early Selandian that contain sufficiently
diverse and adequately described
gastropod faunas to allow valid generic-
level oomparison with the Brightseat
as.sem bIage,
As an additional means of simplifying
the analysis, occunence data from some
of the geologic units in each region were
combined and composite regional faunal
units were established. (table 2). This
waa done far units oC very similar age or
lithology (for example, the Kangilia and
Agatdal Formations; Tufi"eau de Ciply
and Calcaire de Mona within the Mons
Formation: and the Cerithium Limestone
and Coral and Bryozoan Limestone of the
Danian limestone Formation) or where
the published occurrence data did not
allow more precise stratigraphic
differentiation (for example, the Kincaid
Formation and lower Wills Point
Formation and the upper and lower
Clayton Formation). Table 3 summarizes
the occurrence data for these composite
regional faunal units.
Each gastropod assemblage lived
under a unique set of local ecological
conmtimu(fur~p~:~p~~d
substrate type) that exerted a strong
influence on the occurrence and relative
abundance of individual taxa. These
local ecological conditions acted
independently of regional factors (such as
physical barriers to migration, currents
for larva dispersal, and regional
70
temperature gradients) that controlled
regional, or provincial· level , molluscan
distribution patterns. In evaluating the
extent that local ecological conditions
might have inOuenced the distribution of
some generaltaxa in the pstropod
assemblages, the faunal units were
classified in terms of two primary aapecta
of their phJBical environment: lithofacies
(substrate) type and general environment
of ~position (table 4), lithofacies are
broadly defined 88 being either
carbonate-dominated or clastic
(non-carbonate>-dominated. Environment
of deposition is keyed to water depth and
shelt position. This classification
empbasizea fundamental differencea
between depositional (and hence
ecological) regimes of the faunas.
Differential preservs.Uon of the
gastropod Cauna in the individual
sedimentary units may also affect the
observed composition c:i the assemblages.
For exam~ in carbonata-dominated
units, aragonitic sheIla may be selectively
destroyed or greatly altered. This can
re8ult in gaatropod ahella that are too
poorly preserved to identify at even the
generic level Dissolution significantly
affected the gastropod assemblages of the
Clayton Formation in the eastern Gulf'
Coastal Plain (Tou1m in, 1977) 8Ild the
Danian limestone Formation of Denmark
(Rosenkrantz, 1960), and these two units
have the least taxonomic aftinity with
the Brightseat (seven and tan shared
genera, respectively), Thus,
preservational bias can artificially
accentuate the role of litbotaciea oontrol
on distribution at the expense of the
more subtle regional environmental
patterns. However, the use of composite,
generic-level distribution data compiled
from monographic studies appears to
mitigate preservation bias sufficiently to
allow worthwhile faunal comparisons.
This study indicates that the
Brightseat fauna. which occura in clastic
 TABLE.2

AGE, LOCATlON, AND GEOGRAPHIC POSmON OF SELECTED PALEOCENE

GASTROPOD FAUNAS AROUND THE MARGIN OF THE NORTH ATLANTlC OCEAN BASIN

COMPOSITE
GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS GEOLOGIC UNITS AGE REGIONAL
FAUNAL UNITS
z KINCAID FM. EARLY-MIDDLE
WESTERN GULF
=stl.. WESTERN
GCP
DANIAN
COASTAL PLAIN
() ...J (TEXAS) - LOWER------- - -
DANtAN --
LATE DANlAN
i=
Z ~-
(1)tl..
WILLS POINT FM.

=s <U EASTERN GUlF

OQ. EARLY-MIDDLE
~~ U EASTERN
CLAYTON FM.
DANIAN
COASTAL Pl.A1N
DANIAN
zC) u.. GCP
a: a: ...J
:::> (ALABAMA)
MATIHEWS lANDING
EARLY EASTERN GULF
w< C) MARlMBR. COASTAl PLAIN
.... :E SEl.AN DIAN
en (PORTI:AS CREEK FM.l SElANDIAN.
w ~ ......
~ ~~~~ 'IIORTHERN ACP NORTHERN ATlANTIC
~~~~ BRIGHTSEAT FM. MIDDLE DANIAN COAST AI.. PLAIN
(MARYLAND) DANIAN

EARLY-MIDDLE

!i~i
KANGILIA FM.
DANIAN WEST GREENlAND
WEST GREENlAND
DANIAN
0"", AGATDAL FM. MIDDLE DANIAN

z z TUFFEAU DE CIPL Y MIDDLE DANIAN

(!) (j) (MONS FM.)
a: < BELGUIM
c( It! BELGIUM
:i >-
a::: CALCAJRE DE MONS DANIAN
c( LATE DANIAN
U (MONS FM.)
~
~ a:
Z UJ CERITHIUM LS.

....~
I- (DANIAN EARLY DANIAN
z UMESTONE FM.) DENMARK
< ~ qg,RALANO
Q.
BR~OZOAN LS.
DANIAN
Z
a:- alI: DENMARK EARLV-MIDDLE
W :J
UJ
II~~~~FU\ DANIAN
I-
en
c( 3: LEllINGE EARLY DENMARK
w z SElANOIAN SELANDIAN
GREENSAND

71
 TABLE 3
OCCURRENCE OF SELECTED GENERA AND SUBGENERA OF GASTFi
IN DEPOSITS OF DANIAN TO EARLY SELANDIAN AGE
AROUND THE MARGIN OF THE NORTH ATLANTlC OCEAN BASI

- -- ,. - - - .-
COMPOSITE REGIONAL FAUNAl. UNITS
DANIAN
SELANDIAN DANIAN DANIAN NORTHERN DANIAN DANIAN DANIAN SEL.A
EASTERN WESTERN EASTERN An.ANl1C CP
GULF CP GULF CP (BRIGHTSEA 1) ~LANDBElGlUM
DENMARK DEN~
GENUSJSUBGENUS GULFCP

•• ••• •
Ataphtu.
~ (1Wud«;j1Cf»J
1Mdot"~)
• ••• • • •
,
T........'.
V1riw18~)
~
CJtaU • •• • • • ?
C»docI.,4<:14
Artti2tnu
..• • • •
••
PsIIUdanaI&rit
AidJlt«»lictl (~)
•
~»ctJ(~
Haw,..".
•• ••
?
•• • • • •• •
•
T~
Torr:Ua
sr,m...'iI ? •• •• ••
•• •••
MaNda (MaIIIIdI)
1.WJIt»~)
~
? • • • •• •
TuM
ChunmI~J
ChOo1ImI~
~
:• •• •
PuiIh«JM
••
~
• •• •• •• • •• •
,
~
~~
•
•• ••
I..acM
~
PNut/c:IIM
~(&MNI
•• • • •• •
0drasaamII (&wIrpaa.a.) ? ••
S)'m:IIa(~
•• ••• •
Cr8aneII -
ActIGn
• • I
• •• • •
Tama11111N8 (TCItMIifIIIItM)
·Crrftr.blwrt
GiNrIN
•• • •• • ••
ZJdua.
~(~) I ?
RMuu (Cyfd;ttIna)
~
? •1
explanation of (X)~site regional faunal units listed given In Table 2. A -00.- denotes a confirmed OCCL
a -1- denotes a questionable occurrence. Aportnalds are omitted from consideraUon due to the inability
assign the Brtghtseat matertaJ to a specifk: gerus. Where a partIcUlar subg&nUS is represented In the Bri
fauna, occurrences In other units of the geoos 10 which. belongs Is not Indicated unless the same subg'
also represented in those units. Occurrence data derived from numerous sources.

72
 TABLE"

LITHOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CLASSIFICATION OF

COMPOSITE REGIONAL FAUNAL UNITS OF DANIAN TO
EARLY SELANDIAN AGE AROUND THE MARGIN OF THE
NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN BABIN

COMPOSITE REGIONAL DOMINANT ENVIRONMENT OF

FAUNAL UNITS LITHOFACIES DEPOSITION

WESTERN GULF COASrAL PLAIN CLASTIC Middle shelf marine

DANIAN (approx. 90 m.)

EASTERN GULF COASTAL PLAIN CARBONATE Inner shelf marine

DANIAN (20-90 m.)

EASTERN GULF COASTAL PLAIN CLASTIC Inner shelf marine

SELANDIAN (20-90 m.>

NORTHERN ATLANTIC COASTAL PLAIN CLASTIC Middle shelf marine

DANIAN (BRIGHTSEAT) (90-100 m.)

WEST GREENLAND DANIAN CLASTIC Mixed, vet)' sh.l1ow to

midd1e shelf marine

BELGIUM DANIAN CARBONATE Very shallow shelf

marine to estuarine

DENMARK DANIAN CARBONATE Middle shelf marine

(80-150 m.)

DENMARK SELANDIAN CLAST1C Middle shelf marine

Explanation of composite regional faunal units given in tabJe 3. Lithofacies classified as being dominantly
CARBONATE OT dominantly CLASTIC (non-carbonate). Data on lithofacies and environment of deposition
derived from numerous aourtU. .

73
sediments of moderately deep (middle-
neritic) origin (table 4») is generally more
closely related to faunas from other
clastic units than to those from
carbonate-dominated lithofacies)
regardless of water depth. The greatest
affinity is with the fauna of the West
Greenland Danian, with which the
Brightseat assemblage shares twenfy; or .
nearly half, of ita genera and subgenera
(table 3). The fauna of the carbonate-
dominated Belgium Danian follows
closely, with 16 shared genera. While no
strictly contemporaneous assemblages
from claatic-dominated units are known
in either Belgium or Denmark, the
slightly younger (early Selandian)
Lellinge Greensand in Denmark shares
fourteen genera with the Brightseat. In
contrast, the fauna of the early Selandian
clastic deposits of the upper member of
the Porters Creek Formation in the
eastern Gull Coast shares seven genera
with the Brightseat. In the Danian of
the Gulf region, the clastic units of the
western Gulf Danian share nearly twice
the number of genera (thirteen) with the
Brightseat as does the .
carbonate-dominated Clayton Formation
of the eastern Gulf Danian (seven
genera).
These data indicate that local
differences in ecological conditions (as
reflected in substrate type) do indeed
exert a strong influence on gastropod
distribution. However, t.b.is ecological
influence does not completely obscure
broader regional patterns and
relationships.
BIOGEOGRAPmC IMPLICATIONS
OF THE BRIGHTSEAT FAUNA
Available data suggest that there
were two broadly-overlappmg, more-or-
less latitudinally defined, amphiatlantic
faunal realms in the North Atlantic
74
Basin during the early Paleocene. The
more northerly province is commonly
referred to 88 the "Boreal" Province; the
southerly province has generally been
regarded as a warm-water extension of
the sub-tropical to tropical "Tethyan"
Realm (Davies. 1929, 1975; Gardner.
1931, 1935).
. - . -,- -~-------- - - - .. -~
The "Boreal" or Northern Mild-
Temperate Biogeographic Province
In the early Paleocene, the so-alled
"Boreal" Provinee occupied the northern
tier of the North Atlantic Ocean Basin
(fig. 4). On its northern and eastern
periphery, it encompassed an area that
extended from the Labrador Sea and the
straits between Greenland and northwest
Europe through the region of the
Northwest European Tertiary Basin at
least as far south sa the Mona and
northern Paris Basins, and possibly as
far south as the vicinity of the modem
Pyren.ee8 (Anderson, 1976; Davies, 1975;
Kollmann, 1979).
On the western margin oC the North
Atlantic Ocean, the smlthern limit of the
"Boreal" Province is less clearly defined.
The mixed, but predominsntly eastern
and northern Atlantic, affinities of the
Brightseat fauna suggest that the
"Boreal" Province probably extended,
with dim;njahing intluence, at least 88
far south along the AtJ8.Iltic Coastal Plain
as the Salisbury Embayment.
Use of the term "Boreal n connotes a
faunal (or floral) province characterized
by co1d·temperate biotas (Berggren and
Hollister, 1974). However, there is ample
evidence to suggest that early Paleocene
marine and atmospheric
paleotemperatures in the Northern
Hemisphere remained substantially
higher than those recorded at present, so
that temperate to warm·temperate
conditions existed well into the subarctic
 6

"'I
Of
3
SWT

80° 60 0 30° 0°
FIGURE 4. ZOOgeographIc dMsAons 01 the marine molluscan ahen faunas and inlelT8d lUlface amant cIr
Ocean cUIng the early PaIe(Jcene. Paleogeographic reconatRJdions In FJgure 3. NMT - Nofthem Mild--l"I
Southem Warm- Temperate Provtnce; T - Telhyarl ProvInce: Shaded areas indicate transbionaI zones Of o
adJacent provinces. Arrows Indicale Inferred patterns of flow of the doninant surface currents. Data U88d f
zoNdlon and current panem derived from numerous sources.
and even arctic latitudes (Berggren and
Hollister, 1974; Frakes, 1979; Krassilov.
1975; OberbAnsli and Hsu, 1986, Savin,
1977; Savin and others, 1975).
A temperate terrestrial climate
prevailed at least sa far north as central
West Greenland durina the Danian, as
demonstrated by the composition of the
flora associated with the marine beds of
the Agatdal Formation (Rosenkrantz,
1970). Siuillarly, the general composition
of the marine macrofauna! assemblages
preserved in the West Greenland Danian
(including ecbinoids, c:ruatacea ns , corals,
and ~ in addition to the mollusks) is
or
indicative mild-temperate water
conditions (Berggren and Hollister, 1974;
Kollmann, 1979; Roaenkrants, 1970).
Among the West Greenland patropods
are several genera characteriatic of
warmer conditions, including
Calliosto11UJ, HautltlJtor. the Cypraeidae.
Calyptrnea, Pseudoliva, Harpa, and
Acteon (Kollmann., 1979; Kollmann and
Peel, 1983; Rosenkrantz, 1970). The
gastropod faunas from the Danian of
Denmark contain a similar component of
warm-water genera. The diverse
molluscan fauna of the late Danian
Calcai.re de Mons in Belgium is also
known to contain a substantial number of
thermophilic taxa, including among the
gastropods Ha.u.stalm-, Torqrusia. and
Sigmesalia, Calyptl'aphorus, CiJlyptrcua.
Pseutioliva., Drupa, 8Ild Acuon (Davies,
19715; Villatte, 1977).
Though climatic conditions in the
northern part of the North Atlantic Basin
were clearJy quite mild during Danian
time. the occurrence of some taxa with
cooler-water affinities (for example.
gastropod {smiliea like the Lacunidae
and Aporrhaipae and pnera such as
Vanikoropsu 8Ild ~rithiella.. particularly
in the West Greenland Danian, indicates
that the marine climate in the northern
part of the basin was at least somewhat
cooler than that which prevailed further south.
76
For this study. use of the term
"Boreal" to describe the early Paleocene
northern North Atlanti,c Ocean marine
fauna] province is abandoned in favor oC
Northern Mild-Temperate (NMT).
The Southern Warm.Temper.a~
. Biogeographic Province
South of the North.em Mild-
Temperate (NMT) Province, a seoond
broad early Paleocene Atlantic Ocean
faunal province, the Southern
Warm-Temperate (SWT) Province,
stretched acrose the North Atlantic Basin
(fig. 4). The SWT Province was bounded
on the south by the circ:um-equatorial
"Tethyan" Province. The Tethyan
Province is c:haracterized by a rather
cosmopolitan biota of clearly subtropical
to tropical affinities that occupied the
remnants oC the "Tethyan SeaW8J-.
which once uten.ded in a broad east-west
belt that ccmnect.ed the Atlantic and
Paci6c Oceana <Bemren and Holliater,
1974).
There is little paleontological evidence
to locate the latitudinal boundaries of the
swr Province on the eastern side of the
North Atlantic Basin. It probably
occupied a relatively narrow zone.
extending perhaps from the position or
the present-day Pyrenees to the
or
southwaetem tip the Iberian Peninsula
at the Atlantic opening of the
Mediterranean Tethys. The SWT
Province broadened to the west to
encompass the entire Gull of Mexico and
Caribbean regiODS. To the north, the
deposita of the Gull Coastal Plain contain
the northernmost occurrences of typical
SWT faunas. To the south. the province
merged very gradually with the Tethyan
Province. For emmple, the Danian
molluscan faunas of Colombia and
Trinidad maintain their strongest
affinities for those of the Gulf Coastal
Plain and yet exhibit a subtle but
definitA! Tethyan influence (Etayo-Serna,
1979; Gardner, 1931, 1935; Rutsch, 1940,
1948).
In contrast to the early Paleocene
gastropod faunas of the NMT Province,
those of the SWT Province are
characterized by a significant increase in
the diversity of thermophilic but not, as
Kollmann (1979) has pointed out, strictly
tropical tam. Conversely, there is a
general absence in the SWT Province of
cooler-water forma such as CerithielltJ
and the Lacunidae. Among the more
prominent of the NMT cryophilic
gastropods, only the aporrhaids appear to
have extended their range southward
into the northern (Gulf) half of the 8WT
Province. Many of the warmer-water
taxa range throughout the entire
north-south length of the 8WT Province,
and some are known to extend eastward
across the Atlantic into the southw.est
Asian Tethyan region (Adegoke, 1972;
Davies, 1929, 1971, 1975). The
consistent southerly increase in the
Tethyan component of the SWT fauna,
along with the close taxonomic
relationships between seyera1species
pairs in the Gulf and Caribbean halves of
the province (for eumple, between
species of HaustatDr, Mesalia, Pseudoliua,
and Torquesia), lend a distinctive and
internally homogeneous aspect to the
province on the we.tem side of the
Atlantic Ocean Basin (Harris, 1~96i
Maury, 1912; Ru~ 1943; Woodring,
1971).
BiogeolP'aphic Position of the
Brightseat Fauna
The gastropod fauna of the Brightseat
Formation shares elements in common
with those of both the NMT Province and
the 8WT Province. This suggests that
the Brightseat gastropods flourished
77
within a transition zone between the two
provinces. As demonstrated earlier, the
Brightseat fauna displays a greater
affinity with the Atlantic Danian and
early Selandian NMT faunas to the north
and east than with oontemporaneoua
SWT faUIL88 in the Gulf Coastal Plain-
Of particular signjficance ia the
appearance in the Brightseat or the
Lacunidae and the Aporrhaidae, which
are both indicative or somewhat cooler
water conditions. No Brightseat lacunida
are known from Paleot.ene deposits south
of the Salisbury Embayment. To the
north, the 1acunids become increasingly
diverse and are particularly well
represented in the West Greenland
Danian The aporrhaida do occur, but
only rarely, in the Gull Coastal Plain
duriDg the Danian. Like the laCUDida,
however, their diversity and abundance
also increase northward, and they too ant
best represented in the West Greenland
deposits. Other Brightseat tau with
affinities' for NMT Atlantic forms include
an ArchiUctonica (GrtJ1I08Olarium) thai ia
closely allied to certain early Paleocene
western European and Ukranian species;
a very small HaustatDrl that resembles a
species from the early Selandian of
Denmark and Poland; a Sigmesalia that
closely approaches a species compiez
widely distributed in the late Danian and
early Selandian(?) of Belgium, France,
Germany, and Poland; a MtJthildD.
(MatAUda) and a CreoMllD. that appear
to be closely related to West GreenJand
species; and a small Crenilabium that ia
very close to a species found in the
Danish Selandian.
There is a corresponding SWT
influence on then Brightseat fauna. For
example, a small number of Brightseat
species, including a Tomatellaea, a
Gilbertina, and a ZikltU1TJtia. are
conspeci.fic with taxa described from the
Danian of the western Gulf. Three
Brightseat forms from the genera
Teinostoma, OdDstomia., and Retusa
strongly resemble Gulf Coastal Plain
species.
The Brightseat fauna also includes
several forms that appear to be early
representatives of species complexes that
evolved within the Western Hemisphere
during the Paleogene. These forms are
generally well represented in the
Paleogene of the northern Atlantic---------..·-·--···· .
Coastal Plain (for example, in the
Brightseat and Aquia Formations), but
have their greatest diversity and
georraphic distribution in the northern
half of the SWT Province (the Gulf
Coastal Plain). Most important among
these taxa are two turritellids. The first, provinces. The importance of ambient
Haustatar, belongs to the "TurritelhJ
mortoni Subgroup" (seMU Bowles. 1939).
The second, TOrqueBia is closely related
j marine organjsms). and hence in defining
to members of Bowles' "TurriUlla
hUTnerosa Subgroup." Both groups are
well represented in the Gulf and Atlantic
Coastal Plain regions durin&, ~e
Paleocene, and the widespread
occurrence of one member of the
humerosa group in the Danian of
Colombia, Trinidad, and Brazil further
reinforces the apparent preference of the
humerosa complex for the warmer waters
of the SWT Province. Additional
Brightseat taD that have affinities with
Gulf-based species complexes in(:lude the
bucci.nid Laeinia and possibly the retusid Embayment.
lUtusa (Cylichnina).
Four genera have their earliest
known occurrence in the Paleocene
sediments of the Brightseat. This group
includes three vitrinellids (Vitrinella
(Vitrinellops), Cyclostremiscua, and
Anticlimax) and a turritellid referred to
the genua Torcula. Bemuse this is the
only known record of these genera in the
Paleocene, their actual distribution at
this time is unknown. However, the
distribution of these taxa in younger
Tertiary sediments reveals a distinct and
consistent preference for the warmer,
78
lower· latitude waters of the Gulf,
Caribbean, and P 9D smjc regions (Davies,
1971; Marwirk, 1957; Palmer, 1974;
Pilsbry and Olsson, 1950).
ImpHcatioDS tor early Paleocene
paleobiopographic recon.truetion
and interpretation
The distinctive mmure olNMT and
8WT faunal elements that cl1aracterizea
the Brightseat fauna suggests that the
Danian sediments of the SaHsbury
Embayment accumulated within a zone
of transition or overlap between the two
thermal conditions in controlling the
distribution of mollusu (as well 88 other
marine biogeographic units, is well
known (Hutchins, 1947; ~ 1964). The
boundaries between thermally-controlled
biogeographic provinces are marked by
gradual thermal gradienta rather than by
sharp discontinuities. In the relatively-
mild and weakiy-differentiated, early
Paleocene. North Atlantic Ocean, the
thermal boundary between the NMT and
SWT Provinces was broad and gradual.
A gastropod mollusk. assemblage of mixed .
thermal affinities could develop in the
this region, which included the Salisbury
It is postulated that the transitional
zone, in which the Brightseat gastropods
lived. developed. at the northwestern. edge
of a thermal ecological barrier. This
barrier, which is analogous 10 that
presently developed at Cape Hatteras
that de.t1ects the modem Gulf Stream
northeastward away from North America,
existed along the Atlantic coast south of
the Salisbury Embayment (fig. 4). This
barrier prevented the southward
migration of diagnostic NMT Caunal
elements into the Gulf of Mexico and
Caribbean regioIl5 and at the same time
greatly retarded the successful northward
migration along the continental shelf of
swr elements from the Gulf.
Surface-water circulation within the
North Atlantic Ocean Basin during early
Paleocene time was dominated by a large
anticyclonic gyre of warm water situated
in the southern half oC the basin (Fell,
1967; Luyendyk and others, 1972;
Bartlett, 1973; Berggren and Hollister,
1974, 1977; Haq, 1981; OberhAnsli and
}{sft, 1988). This gyre, which is
analogous tD the modern North Atlantic
Gyre, enclosed the large warm-water
mass that formed the core of the SWT
Province. The northern margin of the
gyre marked the boundary between the
NMT and SWT Provinces. The gyre
probably was fed from the east by flow
out of the Mediterranean Tethys. Some
of this warm Tethyan water flowed
westward across the Atlantic and into
the Pacific Ocean via the Strai ta of
panama as part of a circum-global
Tethyan current system. The rest of the
water was deflected into the North and
South Atlantic Basins.
Much oftha northward-detlected flow
proceeded northeastwerq through the
Caribbean and into the Gulf of Mexico
where it turned eastward across the
shallow shelf of the Gulf Coastal Plain
Province. The entire Florida Peninsula
and Bahamian Platform was submerged
at this time (Chen, 1965), and the Gulf
water may have re-entered the central
Atlantic Basin through the Suwannee
Channel across northern Florida.. where
it merged with water deflected off the
Florida and the Bahamian Platform and
gave rise to the early Paleocene
equivalent of the Gulf.stream. The
configuration of the continental masses
around the North Atlantic Basin in
Danian time probably deflected the flow
of this Paleo-Gulf Stream toward the
center of the Atlantic in a more easterly
direction than the northeastward
79
direction it baa today. This deflected
eastward flow, and thus the position of
the ecological barrier between the NMT
and swr Provinces~ was probably well
south of ita present position at Cape
Hatteras. A possible location for the
deflection point and hamer was in the
or
vicinity the so-called ·Charleston
Bump", a prominent bathymetric high
compaaed of a progradational wedge of
Late Cretaceous clastic sedimenta. which
was developed on the northern side of the
Blake Plateau off the southern coast of
South Carolina. Pinet and others (1981)
have shown that since at least the late
Paleocene, this feature has periodically
deflected to the east and 80uth the
normally northeastward flow of the Gulf
Stream system.
As the Paleo-Gulf Stream moved
eastward across the Atlantie, it became
the North Atlantic Boundary Current,
the northern margin of the SWT gyre.
As it approached Europe, some oftha
warm water spread out to the north and
south as the current system was
deflected by the continental mass, and
some water continued eastward into the
Paris and Mona Basins. The warming
influence of this flow may aocount in part
for the substantial thermophilic
component developed within the NMT
Province molluscan Caun.u of the Belgian
Danian. This component is most
pronounced in the fauna of the Calcaire
de Mons, lending it a distinctly
transi tiona! aspect, similar to that of the
Brightseat. Some of the flow was
deflected south toward the Bay of Biscay
and the Iberian Peninsula to complete
the gyre. The remainder of tha flow was
deflected to the north along both coasts of
Greenland, extending ita warming
influence well into the northern reaches
of the ocean basin that included the site
West Greenland Danian deposits.
To summari%e, the thermal regime of
the early Paleocene North Atlantic Ocean
was dominated by the persistent
northward distribution of Tethys-derived
warm water from the swr gyre.
Consequently, the latitudinal thermal
contrast within the basin was much
lower than it is today, and a temperate
marine climate existed throu(hout the
ocean. AI, a result, the latitudinal
environmental contrast that existed at
this time allowed the development of Dnly- - - ,-
two broad, cloaely related, molluscan
biogeop:aphic provinces. The fauna of
the Brightseat representa a transitional
assemblage developed in the zone of
overlap in the vicinity of the Salisbury
Embayment.
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L.M., 1982, Paleocene-Eocene boundary in
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81
----, 1935, The Midway Group of Teua.
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T. Wayland Vaughan and Willis Parkison
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3301 (1933), p. 5-403.
Gibson, T.G.. Mancini, EA. and Bybell. L.M.,
1982, Paleocene to middle Eocene
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or
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Govoni, 0.1.., 1983, Gastropod mollu5ea from
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Bulletins of American PaJeontology, v. I,
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198-', Significant unconformities and the
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Interregional unconfonnities and
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Memoir 36, p. 59-66.
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the biostratigraphy by means of
nannoplankton and planktonic
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106-118.
Hutchins, L.W., 1947, The bases for
 umperature zonation in geographical
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17, no. 3, p. 325-335.
International Geological Correlation
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Basin: Kockel. F .. compHer, IGCP Project.
No. l.24, Newaletters on Stratigraphy, v.
8, no. 3, p. 236-237.
- - , 1988, The Northwest European
Tertiary Baain: Result. of the
International Geolociw Correlation
Programme, Project No. 124. Vinken, a,
compiler: Geoloeiaches Jahrbuch. Seriel
~ no. 100, 508 p.
Kauffman, E.G., and Beauchamp, R.G" 1969,
Sediments of faunas of Paleocene marine
cycles., Potomac River Valley. Geological
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Programs, Part 7, p. ll9-12O.
Kollmann, HA, 1979, Distribution patterns
and evolution of gastropods around the
CretaeeouaiTertiary boundary: In.
Christensen, W.K., and Birkelund, T.,
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symposium, D. Proceedings, Copenhagen,
p.83-87.
Kollmann, H.A., and Peel, J.8.. 1983.
Paleocene gastropods "from Ndgssuaq,
West Greenland: Gntnlanda Geologiske
Undersegels8, Bulletin 146, 115 p.
Krusilov, V.A., 1975, Climatic changes in
eastern Asia as indicated by fossil floras.
U. Late Cretaceous and Danian:
Palaeogeography. Palaeoclimatology,
Palaeoecology, v. 17, no. 2. p. 157·172.
Lowe, E.N., 1933, Midway and Wilcox
Groups: Miasissippi State Geological
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Luyendyk, B.P., Fonyth, D., and Phillips,
J.D., 1972, Experimental approach to the
paleocirculation of the oceAnic surface
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Montien a Mons: M~moirel pOUT Servir a
l'Explication des Cartes Geologiques et
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p. 3-25.
82
Martini, Erlend, 1971, Standard Tertiary and
Quaternary calcareous nannoplankton
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ProceedingJ of the II plankronic
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Merri~ C.W.. 1941, Fossil turritellu from.
the Pacific Coast region of North
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Oberh4nsli, Hedi, and Hsu, K.J., 1986,
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Verhandhmgen der Naturfonehenden
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Pilsbry, H.A, and Olsson, A.A, 1950, Review ,
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Pinet, P.R., Popenoe, Peter, and Nelligan,
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Cret.aceousll'ertiary boundary events in
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CretaceoustTertiary boundary events
 sympoaium, II, Proceedings, Copenhagen, distribution of Paleocene and Eocene
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Brotun, F., eds., Part V, the Villatte, J ., 1977. Lei Mollusques du sondage
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Toulmin, LD., 1977, Stratigraphic

83
84
Potomac River Paleocene and Eocene Stop Descriptions

By Thomas G. Gibson and Laurel M. BybeU

INTRODUcrION

There will be eight stops along the shores of the Potomac River where we will see
Paleocene and Eocene strata (fig. 1). The strata generally have a gentle eastward dip in this
area, and we will encounter progressively younger beds as we proceed eastward down the
river. Stop 1 will be in lower upper Paleocene beds, and Stop B will be in upper lower Eocene
beds. These eight localities contain all nine calcareous nannofossil zones from upper Zone
NP 5 through probable Zone NP 13.
As we leave the Willow Landing Marina and proceed southeastward down Aquia
Creek, we will pass sediments that bracket the CretaceoWl-Tertiary boundary. The boundary
section in this area consists of nonmarine and marginaJ-marine, Lower Cretaceous strata of
the Potomac Group that are overlain by non-calcareous, marine, lower upper Paleocene
deposits of the Aquia Formation. These deposits are found in small sections that are exposed
in most instances along the southern bank of Aquia Creek; our limited time precludes
stopping to see these beds.
The lithologic sections for each of the eight field trip stops (figs. 2-9) are accompanied
by a brief discussion of the stratigraphic position of the strata, other geologic aspects of the
stop, and by a partial listing of the calcareous nannofossils, and where possible, the
foraminifers that occur at each locality.

85
 77·'5' 77"10'

.-0
o,).. MARYLAND
o
~
-y
o
~

38·20'

VIRGINIA o 1
I I
SCA

77"15' 77·10'

Figure 1. Map of Potomac River area showing the location of field ~ri
 LITHOLOGY LEGEND

CONGLOMERATE

SAND

INDURATED SAND

-
CLAYEY SAND

---

111
-- -
--
- -
--- SILlY CLAY
-
---
_-...--
---

II
-
--
--
--

~
--
-
--
--
-
CLAY

GLAUCONITE
~

~ SHEll

~ TURRII'EUA

~
•

G CALCAREOUS MICROFOSSIL SAMPLE

87
 STOPl

Right (southwest) bank of the Potomac River, 1.5 miles below (southeast) of
Youbedamn Landing at the mouth of Aquia Creek, Stafford County, Virginia, Passapatanzy
7 1/2-min. quadrangle. This is the type locality for the Aquia Formation.

........................................................... Thickness (ft)

Aquia Formation
Sand, buff-tcHlrange, fine-grained, glauconitic, massively- bedded;
contains scattered mollusks; interspersed shelly sandstone beds
0.5-2.0 ft thick occur in lower part (bed 9 of Clark and Martin,
1901) .................................................. 12.0

Sand., buff-to-olive, fine-grained, glauconitic; contains abundant

Turritella (bed 8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 17.0

- - - undulating and burrowed surface - - - - -

Sand. olive-gray (5Y 312), very 5ne-grained, slightly clayey, glauconitic,

micaceous; more sandy than below; contains some scattered
mollusks (bed 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 10.0

. - - - - - - undulating surface - - - - - - - -

Sand, olive-gray (5Y 312), very fine-grained, slightly clayey, very

glauconitic, with abundant mollusk shells, especially Turrilella
(bed 6) ..................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5

Sandstone, olive-gray (5Y 411), glauconitic, with abundant mollusk

shells (bed 5) .. "......................................... 1.5

Sand, olive-gray (5Y 312), very fine-grained, clayey, massively-bedded,

bioturbated, locally indurated, very glauconitic. with abundant
oyster and other mollusk shells (bed 4) ......................... 5.0

Sandstone, olive-gray (5Y 4/1), fine to very fine-grained, glauconitic,

with abundant mollusk shellB; laterally grades into three,
separate, indurated beds (bed 3) .............................. 1.0

Sand, olive-gray (5Y 312) in upper part and greenish black (5G 211) in
lower plfrt, fine to very fine-grained, clayey to slightly clayey,
bioturbated, with green-stained quartz, abundant glauconite; is
locally indurated, with abundant mollusk shells, oyster lenses,
and shell lags; some lignite in lower, less shelly part (bed 2) ........ 10.0

-----------beach level ---------- ... -

88
 -
STOP 1 - 1.5 MILES BELOW AGUJA CREEK
SERIES FORMATION NAN NO. BED LITHOLOGY FEET
ZONE

a:
w
CO
~
LU 50-
~

z
o « C/)
Z
~
« o~a.. NP 9 8
40-

w ~ CI)
e::(
Z a:: a..
w o
o LL r--- 30-
o
w a:
-' UJ
« CO
~
a... W
~
20-
« NP 8
NP 7
6

\t~;~>.; ~i~-+-~~1~
::J >-
a « 4
~
« «
l-
NP 6
3 . '..~ .rr-:;...: '~ -~~-- -<::J 10 -
e::(
0
C/)
a..
NP5
.... .
~--~----~~----~~-~-' ~
-' ~ ...'
' ~,,~,,~.~~.~.~'~'~~'~-'~-~~------O-

89
 Ward (1985) designated this locality as the lectostratotype of the Aquia Formation.
This locality is probably the same sampling site that Cushman (1944), Shifflett (1948), and
Nogan (1964) used for their foraminiferal studies, and it is also the same locality from which
Loeblich and Tappan (1957) obtained the holotypes and paratypes of several planktonic
species. The sandy upper part of the Aquia Formation typically exhibits considerable
weathering when it is at the tops of exposures, such as at Stop 1. The condition of the upper
part of this exposure has deteriorated over the past 10 years. At the next two stops, the
upper beds of the Aquia are exposed closer to water level and are in a less-weathered
condition.
Clark and Martin (1901) subdivided the Aquia Formation into a series of numbered
lithologic "zones" that currently are called "beds." These bed numbers can be applied to the
Aquia Formation in its exposures along Aquia and Potomac Creeks. However, these numbers
can be applied only partially to adjacent exposures in Maryland and Virginia (Bybell and
Govoni, 1977), and in most cases the beds cannot be recognized in the subsurface.
The Aquia Formation was divided by Clark and Martin (1901) into two members, the
lower Piscataway Member and the upper Paspotansa Member; they separated the members
at the contact between beds 7 and 8, and later workers (for example Beauchamp, 1984) also
used this same level to distinguish the two members. Ward (1985) considered that the m~or
sedimentary change in the formation at this locality (Stop 1) was from a clayey sand in beds
2 through 5 to a very well-sorted, fine sand in beds 6 through 9, and he proposed a placement
of the member boundary at the bed 5 - bed 6 contact. Ward noted that floral and faunal
changes also had been reported at this level; bed 5 is placed in calcareous nannofossil Zone
NP 7, and bed 6 is placed in Zone NP 8.
The first author's work shows, however, that both at this locality and at other
localities in this area, bed 6 and even part of bed 7 are as clayey as many intervals in beds
2 and 4; although beds 6 and 7 are somewhat transitional in the amount of clay that they
contain, overall they appear more similar lithologically to the lower Piscataway Member than
to the upper Paspotansa Member where Ward placed them. An undulating and highly
burrowed surface occurs between bed 7 and 8; this surface divides what we consider to be the
major lithologies in the section: a lower, more or less clayey sandy section overlain by a more
purely sandy section. This swiace between beds 7 and 8, the one upon which the original
member separation was based, is scoured and burrowed. It probably represents an
unconformity contained within Zone NP 9; the amount of time the diastem represents within
this rather long microfossil zone is uncertain.
In addition to the disconfonnity identified by Ward at the bed 5-6 contact, there also
are surfaces higher in the Aquia Formation than the bed 5-bed 6 contact that also exhibit
physical, biological, and zonal changes. Within bed 6 occurs the calcareous nannofossil zonal
change from Zone NP 8 to Zone NP 9. Also, an undulating surface of uncertain significance
occurs at the top of bed 6.
The lowermost Aquia strata at Stop 1 are placed in the upper part of Zone NP 5 (early
late Paleocene). Zones NP 6, NP 7, NP 8, and NP 9 (late Paleocene) also are present in the
formation. It is uncertain how much calcareous fossiliferous Aquia is present below beach
level at this location, but it could be from 5 to 20 feet. Underlying these sediments would be
the non-calcareous bed 1 strata that are exposed along the south bank. of Aquia Creek.

90
Calcareous Nannofossils

Over the past 15 years, approximately 75 samples have been collected from this
locality. Calcareous nannofossils are fairly abundant at Stop 1, provided that the samples
are taken six inches to one foot below the weathered surficial zone. However, the
preservation and abundance of the calcareous nannofossils can vary significantly from year
to year; this appears to be dependent upon how long the sediments are exposed to weathering
processes. These cliffs are subject to slumping, and when this occurs. the resulting fresh
exposures contain better-preserved calcareous nannofossils. Unfortunately, this outcrop
currently has a significant amount of overgrowth, which has impeded slumping in recent
years.
The most commonly-occurring species are listed below for each of Clark and Martin's
(1901) beds. Asterisks (*) indicate stratigraphically diagnostic species.

Lower bed 2 samples - Zone NP 5 - fair-to-good preservation, one specimen per 1-10 fields of
view at 500X magnification.

Chiasmolithus bickns Markalius inversus

Coccolith us pelagicus Neochiastozygus concinnus
Cruciplacolithus sp. Placozygus sigmoides
Cyciagelosphaera sp. Toweius eminens
Ericsonia subpertusa Toweius pertusus
Fasciculithus inuolutus Toweius touae
*Heliolithus cantabriae
Hornibrookina sp.

Upper bed 2 samples - Zone NP 6 - fair preservation, 1-5 specimens per field of view at 500X
magnification.

Chiasmolithus bidens Markalius inversus

Coccolith us pelagicus Neochiastozygus concinnus
Cyclagelosphaera sp. Placozygus sigmoides
Ericsonia subpertusa Scapholithus apertu8
Fasciculithus involutus Toweius eminens
Heliolithus cantabriae Toweius pert usus
"'Heliolithu8 kleinpellii Toweius touae
Hornibrookina sp.

Bed 3 sample - Zone NP 6 - poor preservation, one specimen per 1-10 fields of view at 500X
magnification.

Chiasmolithus bidens
Coccolith us pelagicus
Hornibrookina 8p.
Neochiastozygus concinnus
Toweius pert usus

91
Lower and middle bed 4 samples ~ Zone NP 6 - fair preservation, 1-10 specimens per field of
view at 500X magnification.

Braarudosphaera bigelowii Hornibrookina sp.

ChiasmoZithu8 biLUns M arkalius apertus
CoccolUhus pelagicus Markalius inversus
Cyclagelosphaera sp. Neochiastozygus concinnus
Ericsonia subpertusa Placozygus sigmoUks
Fasciculithus involutus Toweius eminens
Goniolithus {luckigeri Toweius pertusus
Heliolithus cantabriae Toweius tovae
*Heliolithus kleinpellii

Uppermost bed 4 and bed 5 samples - Zone NP 7 - fair preservation, one specimen per 1-10
fields of view at 500X magnification. The sample from the upper few inches of bed four,
which contains Discooster mohkri, may represent a mixed assemblage as a result of
downward burrowing from the overlying bed.

Braarudosphaera bigelowii Markalius inversu8

Chiasmolithus bidens Micrantholithus sp.
Coccolithus pelagicu8 Neochiastozygus concinnus
*Discoaster mohleri Placozygus sigmoides
Fasciculithus inuolutus Scapholithus apertus
Heliolithus kleinpellii Toweius eminens
Hornibrookina sp. Toweius pertusus
Markalius apertus Toweius tovae

Lower bed 6 samples - Zone NP 8 - fair preservation, 1-10 specimens per field of view at 500X
magnification.

Biantholithus astralis Hornibrookina sp.

Braarudosphaera bigelowii Markalius apertus
Chiasmolithus biLUns Markalius inversus
Coccolith us pelagicus Micrantholithus sp.
Cruciplacolithus sp. Neochiastozygus concinnus
Cyclagelosphaera sp. Placozygus sigmoides
Discooster saZisburgensis Toweius eminens
Ellipsolithus distichus Toweius pertusus
Ericsonia 8ubpertusa Toweius tovae
Fasciculithus involutus Zygodiscus herlyni
*Heliolithus riedelii

92
Upper bed 6 samples - Zone NP 9 - fair preservation. 1-5 specimens per field of view at 500X
magnification.

Biantholithus astralis Heliolithus riedelii

Braarudosphaera bigelowii Hornihrookina sp.
Chiasmolithus bidens Markalius apertus
Coccolith us pelagicus Markalius inversus
Cyclagelosphaera sp. Neochiastozygus concinnus
*Discoaster multiradiatus Placozygus sigmoides
Discoaster salisburgensis Scapholithus apertus
Ellipsolithus distichus Toweius eminens
Ericsonia subp€rtusa Toweius pe1'tusus
Fasciculithus involutus Toweius tovae
GoniDlithus /Zuckigeri Zygodiscus herlyni

Bed 7 samples - Zone NP 9 - fair-to-poor preservation, one specimen per 1-5 fields of view
at 500X magnification. The upper part of this bed is barren of calcareous nannofossils.

Biantholithus astralis Fasciculithus schaubii

Chiasmolithus bidens M arkaliu8 apertus
Coccolithus pelagicus Markalius inversus
Cruciplacolithus sp. Neochiastozygus concinnus
Cyclagelosphaera sp. Placozygus sigmoides
*Discoaster multiradiatus Toweius eminens
Discoaster salisburgensis Toweius pert usus
Ellipsolithus distichus Toweius tovae
Ericsonia subpertusa Zygodiscus herlyni
Fasciculithus involutus

Bed 8 samples - Zone NP 9 - fair-ta-good preservation, 1-10 specimens per field of view at
500X magnification. The lower part oftrus bed is barren of calcareous nannofossils, and the
upper part has interspersed barren samples and samples containing calcareous nannofossils
with fair-to-good preservation and 1-10 specimens per field of view at 500X magnification.

Biantholithus astralis Fasciculithus schaubii

Braarudosphaero bigelowii Goniolithus {luckigeri
Chiasmolithus bidens Lophodolithus nascens
Coccolith us pelagic us Markalius apertus
Cruciplacolithus sp. Markalius inversus
Cyclagelosphaera sp. Placozygus sigmoides
*Discooster multiradiatus Scapholithu8 apertus
Discooster salisburgensis To wei us eminens
Ellipsolithus distichus Toweius pertusus
Ericsonia subpertusa Toweius tovae
Fasciculithus involutus Zygodiscus herlyni

93
Bed 9 samples - probable Zone NP 9 - poor preservation, one specimen per 1-10 fields of view
at 500Xmagnification. Only two sample were collected from this bed at this locality, and the
upper sample was barren of calcareous nannofossils.

Ericsonia subpertusa
Scapholithus apertus
Toweius pert usus
Zygodiscus herlyni

Foramjnifers

Foraminiferal assemblages from beds 2 and 4 have relatively low benthonic species
diversities of 10-17 species. The assemblages are heavily dominated by Anomalinoides
umboniferus, but they also contain significant numbers of polymorphinids (particularly
Globulina gibba), Nonion cf. N. graniferum, andPararotalia perclara. Planktonic specimens
range from totally absent in some aliquot assemblages of 300 foraminiferal specimens to a
few rare Subbotina specimens in other assemblages. The depositional environments vary
from inner inner-neritic water depths to middle inner-neritic depths (30-200 feet).
The benthonic diversity in the bed 6 assemblages increases to approximately 20
species. Although Anomalinoides umboniferus is still an important component of the
benthonic assemblage, many of the specimens have a plano-convex test and prominent
umbilical flaps, and they grade into morphologic characteristics suggestive of Hanzawaia.
Adult specimens of Subbotina occur in low frequencies in this bed. The assemblages suggest
deposition in middle inner-neritic environments.
Planktonic foraminifers are relatively rare in all samples from beds 2-7 at this locality,
and they usually compose only one or two percent of the assemblage. Most planktonic
specimens belong to Subbotina, but Acarinina specimens are found in some intervals along
with lesser numbers of Morozovella. Although planktonic specimens compose a small
percentage of the aliquots from the samples, the relatively large numbers of foraminiferal
specimens in many of the samples indicates that fair numbers of planktonic specimens can
be obtained if a large volume of sediment is processed, and the specimens are concentrated
by flotation. Bed 6 yields the largest planktonic assemblage in the Aquia in the field trip
area A sample from bed 6 at a locality 200 yards down river from this stop contains
Acarinina aquiensis, Morozovella acuta, M. angulata, Planorotalites chapmani, and P.
imitata; this suggests probable placement in Zone P4. Loeblich and Tappan (1957) obtained
specimens of Planorotalites pseudomenardii from 15 to 17 feet above the beach in this area,
which probably corresponds to bed 6. Nogan (1964) also reportedP.pseudomenardii from his
Aquia Creek section, but gave no detailed locality information.
This stop should be the same location as, or at least very near to, the locality sampled
for Loeblich and Tappan's (1957) classic paper on planktonic foraminifers of the Gulf and
Atlantic Coastal Plains. Either the holotypes or the paratypes of the species listed below
were obtained from these Aquia beds. The footage following the species name is the height
above beach level where the type sample was collectecL The sample heights above beach
were listed in three-to~four foot segments, and it appears likely that channel samples were
taken for these intervals.

94
 Globigerina aquiensis L&T, holotype 10-13 ft, paratype 6-9 ft
Globorotalia apanthesma L&T, holotype 10-13 ft
Globorotalia hispidicidaris L&T, holotype 15-17 ft
Globorotalia reissi L&T, holotype 0-3 ft
Globorotalia trichotrocha L&T, holotype 3-6 ft
Globorotalia tribulosa L&T, paratype 14-16 it
Globorotalia perclara L&T, paratype 6-9 ft

The Aquia Formation above bed 7 is difficult to reach at this locality; in addition,
foraminiferal assemblages in these upper beds are weathered because they are near the top
of the exposure. Less-weathered examples of these beds, which are closer to beach level, are
present at the next two stops.

95
 STOP 2

Right (south) bank ofPot(jmac Creek, at the western end of an unnamed bluff just to
the west of Bull Bluff, King George County, Virginia, Passapatanzy 7 IJ2-minute quadrangle .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thickn.ess (ft)

Aquia Formation

Sandstone, light-olive-gray, glauconitic (bed 9 of Clark and Martin,

1901) ...... . . . ...... .. ................................ .. 6.0

Covered interval . . .. . .... . ......... . .......................... . 24.0

Sand, medium-dark-gray-green, fine-grained, clayey, glauconitic,

massively-bedded, bioturbated; sandier than below; contains
scattered molluscan shells (bed 7) .. . .... . ........... . . ... .. . .. 2.0

-------- undulating surface with 0.5-1.0 it relief ---------

Sand, medium-dark-gray-green, fine-grained, clayey. glauconitic,

massively-bedded; contains very abundant and diverse
molluscan shells, common corals, vertebrates, and lignite (bed
6) ........... . .. ..... . . . . . .. ............. . .. . ...... . .... 2.0

---------------------- beach level ---- ------- -------.-----

96
 STOP 2 - POTOMAC CREEK, WEST END OF BULL BLUFF
SERIES FORMATION NANNO. BED LITHOLOGY FEET
ZONE

a:
~
, '" " :' S "'
, t. ,',
w
III
~
w
~
9 7s;):;T' i'
: "':' ; .::': ";:.:' -'., . '. ,,'
. : . . ".. . . ...
.. ",' : :
",
30-
« ~ ''', , '' ': 'G ,' t. ': , ';;"·
en
Z Z
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r-
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en
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o
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w
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z 20-
w 0
LL
o
o m
W
--.J
« m
a...
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CJ 10-
:::J
a L- _ _

a:::
« w
co
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w
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>-
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3:
NP 9
~
«
0
U)
a.. NP8
 This locality is not mentioned in most modern studies of this area; it either has been
overlooked in the past or is an exposure of recent origin. The outcrop is valuable because it
contains relatively unweathered sediments of beds 6 and 7 and because the contact between
the two beds is well exposed. The calcareous nannofossil Zone NP 8 - Zone NP 9 contact
occurs within the upper part of bed 6; this change is marked by the first appearance of
Discooster multiradiatus. The lowermost sediments of bed 6 at this locality are in calcareous
nannofossil Zone NP 8 (i.e .. contain Heliolithus riedelii). while the upper sediments of bed 6
contain Discooster multiradiatus and are placed in Zone NP 9.

Calcareous Nannofossils

Ten samples were collected from this locality. The most commonly occurring species
are listed below. Asterisks (*) indicate stratigraphically diagnostic species.

Zone NP 9 samples - fair-to-poor preservation, one specimen per 1-10 fields of view at 500X
magnification.

Biantholithus astralis Hornibrookina sp.

Chiasmolithus bidens Markalius apertus
Coccolithus pelagicus Placozygus sigmoides
*Discoaster multiradiatus Toweius emirnms
Discoaster salisburgensis Toweius pert usus
Ericsonia subpertusa Toweius tovae
Fasc ic ul ithus tympaniformis Zygodiscus herlyni

Zone NP 8 samples - poor preservation, one specimen per 1-10 fields of view at 500x..

ChiCUlmolithus bidens Markalius sp.

Coccolith us pelagic us Thoracosphaera spp.
Ericsonia subpertusa Toweius pertusus
Fasciculithus tympaniformis Toweius tovae
*Heliolithus riedelii

Foramjnifers

The lower part of bed 6 contains a fairly low diversity assemblage of about 15
benthonic species. Dominant forms include Spiroplectammina wilcoxensis, Hanzawaia,
Epistominella. A nomalino ides , and Nonion cf. graniferum. The planktonic component
includes only a few juvenile specimens of Subbotina.
The upper part of bed 6 contains a more diverse benthonic assemblage, comprising
around 25 species. The dominant species include Spiroplectammina wilcoxensis. Hanzawaia
(possibly an ecophenotypically flattened form of Anomalinoides umboniferus). Buliminella cf.
B. elegantissima, and Bulimina virginiana. The very sparse planktonic assemblage consists
of some juvenile and some adult specimens of Subbotina andAcarinina. Although all of bed

98
6 appears to be uniform sedimentologicaily, there probably is some slight deepening upward
of the depositional environment from the inner-neritic environments characteristic of the
lower part. A possibly higher organic content in the sediments during the deposition of the
upper part of bed 6 is suggested by the relative abundance of specimens of Buliminella and
Bulimina.
The lower part of bed 7 has a low diversity benthonic fauna of 17 species; the
dominant taxa are Robulus, Hanzawaia, Cibici.des alieni, and Bulimina cr. B. ovata. No
plankwnie specimens were found. Deposition occurred in inner-neritic environments. The
benthonic species diversity increases upward in bed 6 from about 15 species in the lower part
of the bed to 25-30 species in the upper part. The benthonic assemblage in the lower part
of the bed is dominated by Spiropiectammina wilcoxensis, Epistominella, Hanzawaia.
Anomalinoides, and Nonion d. N. graniferum. Assemblages in the upper part of the bed are
dominated by Spiroplectammina wiicoxensis, Hanzawaia (probably is a flattened form of
Anomalinoides umboniferus), Buliminella cf. B. elegantissima, Bulimina virgin iana , and
polymorphinid taxa. The planktonic component is small in ail samples, but it increases
upward; adult specimens of Subbotina and Acarinina are found only in the upper part of bed
6. Although all of bed 6 was deposited in inner-neritic environments, the depth increased w
the outer part of this depth zone during deposition of the upper part of the bed..

99
 STOP 3

Right (south) bank of the Potomac River, 0.2 miles upriver from Belvedere Beach, King
George County, Virginia, Passapatanzy 7 1J2-minute quadrangle .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , ..................... . ....... . ....... . Thickness (ft)

Aquia Formation

Sandstone, light-olive-gray (bed 9) 2.0

Sand, buff-orange, fine-grained, silty, glauconitic; contain.s abundant

Tumtella; weathered upper part of bed 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.0

Sand, dark-greenish-gray, fine-grained, silty, glauconitic, locally

indurated; contains abundant Turritella, commonly in lenses;
many shell fragments (bed 8) ...... . ............ . . . .......... 12.5

----------------- beach level ---.-.---------------

100
 STOP 3 - BELVEDERE BEACH
SERIES FORMATION NANNa. BED LITHOLOGY FEET
ZONE
. .
~': .::1·.. ,.'.:-' 20 -
9 -_. . ----r;: '_..
.. =r:
.~ ~.: . ..........
. , .. ..,.,..,..... . .
.. .'. . ..
;. >:~:. :: '~'.:~.': : ~:.: . .:. ~.,::~.:::-:;.::.::. : .~. ,~.
z . :. :.: ":' .... '." ..

0
c:
;:;g:i)1~~.<;
I- w
en 15-
« ::2!
w
w ~ ::2!
Z a:
w 0
0 u...
NP9
0 :. ', ..::' ::. '.:::.....,.: .)~t:· ";.:. ::'..".~::.: .::..>: ..:..
W 8 '"':. -; -.
' - ;,.". ;:... 10-
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«
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•~.•"!~' •. G\/~;~G; •. ~
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::.~i/i;';i.iii •. . .
- ... '.
a... :. '. ..". ..-

a 5-
«

101
 At Stop 3, relatively unweathered sediments from bed 8 of the Aquia Formation are
exposed at beach level. Abundant specimens of Tumtella, both scattered through the
sediments and concentrated in lenses, characterize bed 8 in this area. The entire exposure
belongs in Zone NP 9; the section exposed here contains the youngest Aquia strata in the
type area that have a well~preserved calcareous microfauna and microflora. Most exposures
oibed 9 at Bull Bluff and at Aquia Creek are barren of calcareous microfauna! assemblages
or conta:in poorly presenred assemblages.

Calcareous Nannofossils

Five samples were collected from this locality. The most commonly occurring species
are listed below. Asterisks (*) indicate stratigraphically diagnostic species.

Zone NP 9 samples - fair-t~good preservation, 1-10 specimens per field of view at 500X
magnification.

Biantholithus astrolis Fasciculithus tympaniformis

Braarudosphaera bigeiowii Goniolithus fiuckigeri
Chiasmolithus bidens Markalius inversus
Coccolithus peiagicus Placozygus sigmoides
Cruciplacolithus sp. Scapholithus apenus
CyclageZospluura sp. Thorac.osphaera spp.
*Discoaster muUiradiatus Toweius eminens
Discoaster salisburgensis Toweius pert usus
Ellipsolithus distichus Toweius tovae
Ellipsolithus macellus Zygodiscus herlyni

Foraminifers

Foraminifera are common in these beds, but the species diversity usually is less than
15. Most assemblages are heavily dominated by Anomalinoides umboniferus.
Spiroplectammina wilcoxensis and Cibicides alieni also are important components of most
samples. Planktonic specimens are absent from some of the samples at this locality; if
present, they consist of only a few immature individuals of Subbotina. These strata were
deposited in inner inner-neritic environments.

102
NOTES

103
 STOP 4

Right (south) bank of the Potomac River, 0.7 miles downriver from the Fairview Beach
wharf, King George County, Virginia, King George 7 112~minute quadrangle .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thicmess (ft)

Nanjemoy Formation

Sand, light-olive~gray (SY 512), very fine~grained, clayey, silty,

micaceous, glauconitic, massively~bedded. bioturbated; contains
no visible shells; carbonaceous debris present ................... 10.0

----undulating contact, 0.5 ft relief, burrows 1.5 ft deep--~~~~

Marlboro Clay

Clay, medium~gray (N5), slightly silty in some levels, massively~bedded;

contains no visible shells .................................... 4.0

~-~-~-~~~-~- ---~---~~- und ula ting contact --- ---------- -~-~~-~~~

Aquia Formation

Sand, olive~gray (5Y 3/2), very fine-grained, clayey, silty, glauconitic,

massively~bedded, bioturbated; contains molds of bivalves and
Turritella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3.5

~~-------------------- beach level -------------------

104
 STOP 4 - 0.7 MILE BELOW FAIRVIEW BEACH
SERIES FORMATION NANNO. LITHOLOGY FEET
ZONE

15 -

>- z
w oQ
z ~I­
w W<3::
o J~
ow Zc:
~o
Z LL
10-

oa:
0>-
w CD <3::
z -I...J
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w <3:: O
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<3:: «-zo:
- t- <!UJ
a.. :::> « I- CD
a« ~ ~~
a: CI) ~
O~
LL

105
 The strata exposed here span the Paleocene-Eocene boundary (Zone NP 9-NP 10
boundary according to Berggren and others, 1985). The upper part of the Aquia Formation,
the Marlboro Clay, and the Nanjemoy Formation are non-calcareous at this stop, but several
coreholes in northern Virginia and southern Maryland have penetrated these boundary strata
where good calcareous microfossil assemblages are present. At Stop 4, the Marlboro Clay is
bounded both above and below by unconformities. A burrowed unconformity is present at the
top of the Marlboro in all known localities, but the upward change from the Aquia to the
Marlboro is transitional in the Oak Grove and Putney Mill coreholes in Virginia

Calcareous Nannofossils

There are no calcareous nannofossil specimens preserved at this locality.

Foraminifers

No specimens were obtained from these becla at this exposure.

106
NOTES

107
 STOP 5

Right (south) bank of the Potomac River, 1.4 miles downriver from the Fairview Beach
wharf, King George County, Virginia, King George 7 112-minute quadrangle .

. . . . . , ..................................................... Thickness (ft)

Pleistocene

Conglomerate, orange; contains sand to cobble-sized material . . . . . . . . . . . .. 10.0

Nanjemoy Formation

Sand, olive-gray (5Y 312), very fine-grained, clayey, silty. slightly

micaceous and glauconitic, massively-bedded, bioturbated;
contains scattered small shells and shell fragments . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 15.0

-------.------------ beach level ---------------------

108
 STOP 5 - 1.4 MILES BELOW FAIRVIEW BEACH
SERIES FORMATION NANNO. LITHOLOGY FEET
ZONE

w
z
w
o
o
t- 20-
en
W
---1
a..

15-

z
o
-
t-
«
~
w a: 10 -

z o
LL
w
o
o
w >- .:,' ...
. ~.

'
.. ..
,'
... ",

o
",'

~ •'. . .•. .• t <:,·,· ·.· .O.·•.·• .•. .• •.•·'.· . i·.·· ~.• ;.• .•. . •.-; .•. .•. .•. . 5-
, . ',:." .. . '. 0' : . , '., _.". -': _:.: : " _ .. ". '., ' .. _,
W . ' :.: -.: :. . .. . '. - ':.: " :.-
J
Z
«
Z NP10

109
 This exposure contains the oldest calcareous fossiliferous beds of the Nanjemoy
Formation exposed along the Potomac River. The sample at beach level contains
Tribrochiatus bramlettei, which places these strata in the lower part of Zone NP 10. It is
unknown how far the basal Nanjemoy beds at this location are above the top of the Marlboro
Clay, but the contact with the Marlboro could be from a few feet to possibly as much as 10
feet below beach level. This thickness estimate is based upon biostratigraphic information
from the Virginia and Maryland coreholes where Zone NP 10 strata usually are less than 20
feet thick, and also by the close proximity of this stop to Stop 4 in an area where gentle dips
of 10 to 20 feet per mile prevail.

Calcareous Nannofossils

Two samples were collected from this locality. The most commonly occurring species
are listed below. AsteriBks (*) indicate stratigraphically diagnostic species.

Zone NP 10 samples - fair preservation, 1-10 specimens per field of view at 500X
magnifica tion.

Braarudosphaera bigelowii Micrantholithus sp.

Chiasmolithus bidens Necx:hiastozygus concinnus
Coccolithus pelagicus Neococcolithes dub ius
Cyclagelosphaera sp. Thoracosphaera spp.
Discooster multiradiatus Toweius callosus
Ellipsolithus distichus Toweius occultatus
Fasciculithus aubertae? Toweius pertusus
Goniolithus fluckigeri Transversopontis pulcher
Hornibrookina sp. *Tribrachiatus bramlettei

Foraminifers

Few specimens were recovered from these beds. Many of the species exhibit a fair
amount aftest corrosion. Benthonic species diversity is less than 15; the most abundant taxa
include Eponides lotus, Anomalinoides sp., and Robulus sp. Planktonic specimens are rare;
they consist mostly of juvenile specimens of Subbotina. These strata were deposited in inner-
neritic conditions.

110
NOTES

111
 STOP 6

Right (south) bank of the Potomac River, 0.9 miles downriver of Somerset Beach, King
George County, Virginia, King George 7 II2-minute quadrangle .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thickness (ft)

Pleistocene

Conglomerate, orange; containing sand to cobble-sized material 25.0

------------------------ unconformity ----------------------

Nanjemoy Formation

Sand, olive-gray (5Y 3/2), very fine-grained, clayey, silty, slightly

micaceous, moderately glauconitic, massively-bedded; contains
a moderate number of shells that occur both scattered and in
bands; bands of Venericardia potapacoensis are present . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.0

----------------------------})each level ------------------------

112
 STOP 6 - 0.9 MILE BELOW SOMERSET BEACH
NANNO. LITHOLOGY
SERIES FORMATION ZONE FEET

30-

w
z
w
o
o
I- 20
CJ)
W
--1
a...

10-

>- z
w
z o o-
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o
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----0
113
 This exposure is the only one along the south bank of the Potomac River that contains
strata that at least provisionally can be placed in Zone NP 11. Strata belonging to the upper
part of Zone NP 10 (i.e., containing Tribrachiatus contortus) are unknown from these
discontinuous exposures along the Potomac River, although they do occur in coreholes in
nearby Virginia and Maryland.

Calcareous Nannofossils

One sample was collected from this locality. The most commonly occurring species are
listed below. Asterisks (*) indicate stratigraphically diagnostic species. Neither
Tribrachiatus conrortus, Tribrachiatus bramlettei, nor Discooster multiradiatus are present
in this sample. Specimens of Toweius callosus and Transversopontis pulcher (which increase
in size in the lower Eocene) are larger than at the previous stop. These data indicate a most
probable placement is within Zone NP 11.

Probable Zone NP 11 - fair preservation, one specimen per 1-10 fields of view at 500X
magnifica tion.

Campylosphaera dela Neococcolithes dubius

Cepekiella lumina Sphenolithus 8p.
Coccolith us pelagic us Toweius callosus
Discooster sp. cf. D. kuepperi Toweius occultatus
Discoaster limbatus / binodosus Toweius pertusus
Discoas~r salisburgensis Transversopontis pulcher
Ellipsolithus macellus Transversopontis pulcheroides??
Markalius inversus *Tribrachiatus orthostylus

Foraminifers

The benthonic assemblage from a sample at beach level at this locality contains 18
species. The common taxa are Cibicides alieni, Elphidium sp., Siphonina wiZconensis,
Bolivina sp., and Turrilina robertsi. The planktonic foraminiferal component, which includes
adult specimens of Subbotina, composes less than five percent of the total assemblage. These
beds were deposited in a middle inner-neritic environment. The presence of Elphidium sp.
supports an age placement in Zone NP 11 or younger.

114
NOTES

115
 STOP 7

Right (south) bank of the Potomac River, 2.1 miles upriver from Mathias Point, King
George County, Virginia, Mathi.as Point 7 1/2-minute quadrangle .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thickness (ft.)

Pleistocene

Conglomerate, orange; sand to boulder-sized material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.0

-------------------- ----- unconformity -- -----------------------

Calvert Formation

Clay, yellow-gray, silty, sandy toward base; contains phosphate pebbles

and bone along the base .................................... 25.0

-------------- ---- ----- unconformity -------------------

Nanjemoy Formation

Sand, olive-gray (5Y 3/2), very fine-grained. clayey, silty, slightly

micaceous, moderately glauconitic; contains shell molds in upper
strata and scattered molluscan shells in lower 14 ft . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 40.0

------------------------- beach level ------.------------------

116
 STOP 7 - 2.1 MILES ABOVE MATHIAS POINT
SERIES
~__~+-FORMATION NANNO.
________~~Z~O~N~E~~~ LITHOLOGY FEET
__________________________________ 70_

(f)
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117
 This exposure is at or near the lectostratotype locality ofthe upper Woodstock Member
of the Nanjemoy Formation (Ward, 1985). The lowest beds in this exposure are placed in
Zone NP 12 because of the co-occurrence of Tribrachiatus orthostyius and Discooster
lodoensis.

Calcareous Nannofossils

Three samples were collected from this locality. The most commonly occurring species
are listed below. Asterisks (*) indicate stratigraphically diagnostic species.

Zone NP 12 samples - fair-to-poor preservation, 1-10 specimens per field of view at 500X
magnification.

Braarudosphaera bigelowii Lophodolithus reniformis?

Campylosphaern dela Markalius inversus
Cepekiella lumina Neococcolithes dub ius
Chiasmolithus bidens Rhabdosphai!-ra sp.
Coccolithus pelagicus Sphenolithus sp.
Discoaster distinctus / deflandrei Thoracosphaera spp.
Discoaster kuepperi Toweius occultatus
*Discoaster lodoensis Transversopontis pulcher
Ericsonia formosa? Transversopontis pulcheroides
Goniolithus fluckigeri *Tribrachiatus orthostylus
Helicosphaera?? Zygrhablithus bijugatus

Foramjnifers

Specimens are moderately common in the lower beds at this locality. Species diversity
is slightly greater than 20. The dominant taxa include Siphonina wilcoxensis. Elphidium 8p.,
Eponides lotus, Hanzawaia, Anomalinoides, Spiroplectammina wilcoxensis, and Turrilina
robertsi. Planktonic specimens compose about four percent of the assemblage; most
specimens are juvenile forms of Subbotina. but some adult specimens of Subbotina and
Acarinina are present. These strata were deposited in a middle inner-neritic environment.

118
NOTES

119
 STOPS

Left (northeast) bank of the Potomac River, 1.8 miles upstream from the mouth of
Popes Creek, Charles County, Maryland, Mathias Point 7 1l2-minute quadrangle .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thickness (ft)

Calvert Formation

Sand, brown in lower part; grades upward into yellow-gray

diatomaceous clay ................................. unmeasured

-------------.----------- un~ILfoI1Ility ------------------------

Nanjemoy Formation

Sand., olive-gray (5Y 3/2), very fine-grained, clayey, silty, massively-

bedded, bioturbated; contains some intervals with considerable
clay; abundant glauconite and fairly abundant, scattered
molluscan shells "in lower part; shells sometimes in lenses; beds
become oxidized upward and only contain shell molds ............. 26.5

-------- burrowed surface; burrows extend 1.5 ft downward --------

Sand, grayish-olive-green (5 GY 3/2), very fine-grained, clayey, silty,

slightly micaceous, moderately glauconitic; contains scattered
molluscan shells ........................................... 1.5

--------------------------- beach level -----------------.---------

120
 STOP 8 - 1.8 MILES ABOVE POPES CREEK
NANNO.
SERIES FORMATION LITHOLOGY FEET
ZONE
----
Z
a: a
W f-
zW -
f-
0
W
> « --
-
- --
-
-
------
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a- « a:::
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-
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-
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-
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-
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.
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_ •_ _ _ .....L.-.
-"---

30

z
a-
r-
« 20
~
a::
w aLL
z
w
o
aw
>-
o 10
~
W
J
Z
«
z
NP12

---0

121
 The lower two samples, examined at one foot above beach level (below the bUlTOwed
surface) and at three feet above beach level (above the bUlTOwed surface), contain calcareous
nannofossil assemblages characteristic of Zone NP 12. The highest sample, examined at 5.5
feet above beach level, contains a nannofossil assemblage probably referable to Zone 13.

Calcareous Nannofossils

Three samples were collected from this locality. The lower two samples are in Zone
NP 12, and the upper sample probably belongs in Zone NP 13. This sample contains
Discoaster lodoensis (occurs in Zones NP 12-NP 14) and does not have Tribrachiatu.s
orthostylus (does not extend above Zone NP 12). The genus Reticulofenestra, which first
appears in Zone NP 13. is present in this sample. The most commonly occurring species are
listed below. Asterisks (*) indicate stratigraphically diagnostic species.

Zone NP 12 samples - fair-to-poor preservation, one specimen per 1-10 fields of view at 500X
magnification.

Cepekiella lumina Thoracosphaera spp.

Chiasmolithus bidens Toweius callosus
Coccolithus pelagic us Toweius occultatus
Discoaster kuepperi Transversopontis pulcher
*Discoaster lodoensis *Tribrachiatus orthostylus
Markalius inversus Zygrhablithus bijugatus
Neococcolithes dubius

Possible Zone NP 13 - fair preservation, one specimen per 1-10 fields of view at 500X
magnification.

Braarudosphaera bigelowi Neococcolithes dub ius

Chiasmolithus bidens "'Reticulofenestra spp.
Coccolithus pelagic us ThoracosphCU!7a spp.
Discoaster kuepperi Toweius occultatus
*Discoaster lodoensis Transve,.sopontis pulcher
Markalius inversus Transversopontis pulcheroides
Microntholithus vesper Zygrhablithus bijugatus

Foraminifers

Specimens are moderately common in the lower strata at this locality. The benthonic
component consists of slightly greater than 20 species. Siphcnina wilcoxensis, Eponides lotus,
Elphidium sp., and Spiroplectammina wilcoxensis are the dominant taxa. Planktonic
specimens, all belonging to Subbotina. compose about four percent of the assemblage.
Deposition of these strata occurred in middle inner-neritic environments.

122
COMPLETE SCIENTIFIC NAMES FOR CALCAREOUS NANNOFOSSIL SPECIES
DISCUSSED IN GUIDEBOOK

Biantholithus astraLis Steinmetz & Stradner, 1984

Braarudosphaera bigelowi (Gran & Braarud, 1935) Deflandre, 1947
Campylosphaera ckla (Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961) Hay & Mohler, 1967
Cepekiella lumina (Sullivan, 1965) Bybell, 1975
Chia.smolithus bi.lkns (Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961) Hay & Mohler, 1967
Chiasmolithus danicus (Brotzen, 1959) Hay & Mohler, 1967
Chiasmolithus solitus (Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961) Hay, Mohler, & Wade, 1966
Chiphragmalithus calathus Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961
Coccolith us pelagicus CWallich, 1877) Schiller, 1930
CrucipU:u:olithus tenuis (Straciner, 1961) Hay & Mohler in Hay et a1., 1967
Daktylethra punctulata Gartner in Gartner & Bukry, 1969
Discooster deflandrei Bramlette & Riedel, 1954
Discoo.ster diastypus Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961
Discoaster distinctus Martini, 1958
Discoaster kuepperi Stradner, 1959
Discoaster lodoensi8 Bramlette & Riedel, 1954
DiscOtUter mohleri Bukry & Percival, 1971
Discoaster multiradiatus Bramlette & Riedel, 1954
Discoaster salisburgensis Stradner, 1961
Discooster sublodoensis Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961
Ellip80lithus distichus (Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961) Sullivan, 1964
Ellipsolithus macellus (Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961) Sullivan, 1964
Cyclococcolithu8 formosus Kamptner, 1963
Ericsonia subpertusa Hay & Mohler, 1967
Fasciculithus aubertae Haq & Aubry, 1981
Fasciculithus involutus Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961
Fasciculithus schaubii Hay & Mohler, 1967
Fasciculithus tympaniformis Hay & Mohler in Hay et a1., 1967
Goniolithus fluckigeri Deflandre, 1957
Helicosphaero lophota (Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961) Locker, 1972
Helico8phaero seminulum Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961
Heliolithus cantabriae Perch-Nielsen, 1971
Heliolithus kleinpellii Sullivan, 1964
Heliolithus riedelii Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961
LopJuxiolithus nascens Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961
Lophodolithus reniformis Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961
Mo.rkalius apertus Perch-Nielsen, 1979b
Marko.lius inversus <Deflandre in Deflandre & Fert, 1954)
Micrantholithus vesper Deflandre, 1954
Neochiastozygus concinnus (Martini, 1961) Perch-Nielsen, 1971c
Neococcolithes dubius <Deflandre in Deflandre & Fert, 1954) Black, 1967
plactJzygus sigmoides (Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961) Romein, 1979b
Scapholithus apertus Hay & Mohler, 1967
Toweius callos us Perch-Nielsen, 1971b
Toweius eminens (Bramlette & Sullivan, 1961) Gartner, 1971a
Toweius occultatus (lAlcker, 1967) Perch-Nielsen, 1971
Toweius pertusus (Sullivan, 1965) Romein, 1979b
Toweius tovae Perch-Nielsen, 1971b

123
Transuersopontis pulcher (Deflandre in Deflandre & Fen, 1954) Perch-Nielsen, 1967
Transuersopontis pulcheroides (Sullivan, 1964) Baldi-Beke, 1971
Tribrachiatus bramlettei (Bronnirnann & Stradner, 1960) Proto Decima et a1., 1975
Tribrachiatus contort us (Stradner, 1959) Bukry, 1972
Tribrachiatus orthostylus Shamrru, 1963
Zygodiscus herlyni Sullivan, 1964
Zygrhablithus biJugatus (Deflandre in Deflandre & Fen, 1954) Deflandre, 1959

124