Occurence of marine palynomorphs of sediment core CRP-1 (Table 1)@en

The first core of the Cape Roberts Project, CRP-1, penetrated a Quaternary and lower Miocene section rather than the anticipated Palaeogene sediments. Initial palynologic study was conducted at the Crary Science and Engineering Laboratory, McMurdo Station, concurrent with drilling. Rapid and environmentally safe sample processing was made possible by the use of a focused microwave digestion unit that scrubbed acid fumes. In situ and/or reworked dinocysts (dinoflagellate cysts), acritarchs (leiospheres and acanthomorphs), and prasinophyte phycomata are present in the 35 samples studied. Overall, the CRP-1 assemblages are similar to Arctic marine palynomorph assemblages that are used there as ice margin indicators. Some of the acanthomorph acritarchs recovered from the CRP-1 core closely resemble cysts of extant Antarctic autotrophic sea-ice dinoflagellates. It is possible that some of these acanthomorphs are actually dinocysts, and could be used as indicators of sea-ice conditions similar to today. […]