A Tertiary-Quaternary section at Sarsbukta, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, and its foraminifera

Abstract

Tertiary and Quaternary deposits outcrop in the coastal cliff of Balanusviken at Sarsbukta in Vest- Spitsbergen. The Tertiary deposits appear by their foraminifera to belong to the Middle to Upper Oligocene. The Quaternary deposits consist of an upper part of Late Pleistocene to Holocene age, and a lower part which had previously been considered Middle Weichselian of age. Its foraminiferal assemblages suggest a higher age (Late Saalian, Eemian?). This lower part of the Quaternary deposits is related to a series of raised beaches with an upper limit at 50 m above present day sea level. They were probably formed during the Eemian, and have not been distorted by later glaciation. The present study is based on sediment samples collected from the coastal cliff of Balanusviken, and particularly from that of Balanuspynten, Sarsbukta, Spitsbergen, during the summer expedition of Norsk Polarinstitutt in 1950.