LATE QUATERNARY PLANKTONIC FORAMINIFERS OF THE EXTREME NORTHEASTERN KURIL BASIN (SEA OF OKHOTSK, STATION V34-98)

Abstract

The paper presents the results of quantitative and qualitative analyses of planktonic foraminifer distribution in the Upper Pleistocene-Holocene sediments of the northeastern part of the Kuril Basin in the Sea of Okhotsk. Several assemblages different in their taxonomic composition and corresponding to certain stages of the sea hydrological evolution are established. Comparison of defined foraminiferal assemblages with their coeval counterparts from the Akademii Nauk Rise indicates that they are similar in some and different in other features because of dissimilar impact of Pacific waters, which penetrate into the Sea of Okhotsk via straits in the northern Kuril island arc, on two areas.