Post-Glacial Paleo-Oceanography, Northeast Newfoundland Shelf

Forty-five sediment samples from three sediment cores (one trigger weight, two piston) from the northeast Newfoundland Shelf were analyzed for benthfc and planktonic foraminifera, pollen and dinoflagellates. Five benthic foraminiferal faunas were found in cores 07TWC and 07P (combined), four post-glacial and one glacial. These five assemblages are (down core): an agglutinated (Inner Labrador Current - late Holocene) assemblage; a N. labradorica (Outer Labrador Current· - mid-Holocene) assemblage, a M. barleeanum - Pullenia spp. ("cold" Labrador Current - early Holocene) assemblage; an L. helenae - C. reniforme - C. laevigata ("warm" Labrador Current - early Holocene/late Pleistocene) fauna and an E. excavatum - C. reniforme ("warm" glacial ice-margin - late Pleistocene) fauna. Only two faunas were found in core 015P; the agglutinated assemblage and the "warm" ice-margin assemblage which directly overlies till or till - like material barren of foraminifera. If the post-glacial sequence in cores 07TWC and 07P is complete, then most of the post-glacial sedimentary record (2500-10000 YBP) is missing from core 015P. The planktonic foraminifera present with the agglutinated benthic fauna in core 015P indicates there has been mixing of Gulf Stream and Inner Labrador Current surface waters during the late Holocene, at this site.