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Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary. The bottoms of all cores<br />

contain the planktonic foraminiferans Globorotalia<br />

truncatulinoides, and Discoasteridae are absent; thus all<br />

sediment cor~is assumed to be Pleistocene and Holocene in<br />

age (Ericson and others, 1964; Berggren and others, 1967).<br />

The zonation of the Globorotalia menardii complex in<br />

these cores was studied to determine the rates of sediment<br />

accumulation on the Greater Antilles Outer Ridge. Ericson<br />

and Wollin (1968), Ruddiman (197l) and Kennett and<br />

Huddlestun (1972), among others, have utilized a semi-<br />

quantitative evaluation of the relative abundance of this<br />

taxonomic complex (~. menardii menardii, ~. menardii tumida,<br />

and~. menardii flexuosa) as an indicator of alternating<br />

warm and cool intervals in tropical and subtropical areas<br />

during the Quaternary. A sequence of zones designated<br />

Q-Z in order of decreasing age represents these intervals,<br />

where Q,S,U,W and Yare cool zones in which G. menardii is<br />

rare or absent~ and R~T,V~X and Z are warm zones with<br />

a b un d ant ~ . men a r d i i (E r i c s on an d W 0 11 in, 1968). T his<br />

warm/cool zonation is supported by curves of oxygen-isotope<br />

variations down through the V zone (Ruddiman, 1971).<br />

The ~ 175 ~m fraction of Foraminifera from the cores<br />

was judged representative of climatic change at this<br />

latitude (Kennett and Huddlestun, 1972), and frequency<br />

counts of a microsplit of about 300 specimens from each<br />

sample were made to determine the abundance of G. menardii<br />

107

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