Annual Report 2009 of the Working Group on Paleogene Stratigraphy of the North Pacific

A meeting on the Sakhalin-Kamchatka Paleogene was held in Moscow, April 2009, to consider new materials and to outline plans of works for 2010-2011. The works include particularly a part of a special project on geological evolution of the North Pacific shelf zones during the Cenozoic (biotic changes, sedimentational features, tectono-magmatic activity, paleogeographic rearrangements, climatic fluctuations, etc). Now it is very important to combine bio-, sequence-, seismostratigraphic investigations. We began to study new material on diatom flora from the Eocene of Kamchatka. The study of planktonic and benthic foraminifers and mollusks from the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary beds of Sakhalin has been completed. Planktonic foraminifers were found there for the first time. A special paper “New Data on Maastrichtian-Paleogene Foraminifers from Sinegorsk Horizon of Southern Sakhalin” was published  in “Stratigraphy. Geol. Correlation”, 2009, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 443-453. A monographic treatment of Paleocene and Ypresian of Kamchatka is continued. The Thanetian-Ypresian fauna (mollusks and foraminifers) reflecting the known climatic optimum is unique for these latitudes. The study of planktonic and benthic foraminifers from the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary beds of Sakhalin has been completed. Planktonic foraminifers were found there for the first time. A special publication is under preparation. A monographic treatment of Paleocene and Ypresian of Kamchatka is continued. The Ypresian fauna reflecting the known climatic optimum is unique for these latitudes.

Report by Yu. B. Gladenkov, Chairman