Diatom Evidence Bearing on the Holocene in the South Atlantic

Abstract

The Pleistocene/Holocene boundary is easily recognized in deep-sea cores from the South Atlantic as an upward change from predominantly shelf and meroplanktonic diatoms to holoplanktonic forms. Those cores with high sedimentation rates show several climatic fluctuations during the Holocene. One core (E 7-1) from the Scotia Sea has a sufficiently expanded Holocene to reveal three distinct coolings at approximately 4600 yr BP, 2800 yr BP and 1000 yr BP. This compares favorably with the results of other workers.