Fossil Assemblages from Vening Meinesz Seamounts, Late Cretaceous to Holocene

Samples from eight dredge hauls collected during BMR cruise 107 from several seamounts in the Vening Meinesz chain, south of Christmas Island, yielded calcareous nannofossils, foraminiferids, and fragmentary macrofossils with ages ranging from Late Cretaceous to Holocene. The data, provided by Geoscience Australia, includes information on fossil assemblages and lithologies, suggesting depositional environments from shallow-water to bathyal depths over time.

Use Cases

• Reconstructing paleoenvironmental conditions based on described fossil assemblages (e.g., rudists, Inoceramus, nannofossils).
• Analyzing seamount subsidence and volcanic history based on age ranges and lithology mixtures mentioned in the description.
• Studying debris flow events and sediment transport based on the presence of mixed-age samples and reworked fossils.
• Modeling paleolatitude and ocean temperature changes based on descriptions of warm, subtropical to tropical conditions during certain periods.

Strengths

• Covers a wide temporal range from the Late Cretaceous to the Holocene.
• Includes multiple fossil groups: calcareous nannofossils, foraminiferids, and macrofossils.
• Samples originate from a specific geological feature: the Vening Meinesz seamount chain.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is presented in PDF/HTML formats, which may complicate direct computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Samples collected from eight dredge hauls during BMR cruise 107.

Time Range

Late Cretaceous to Holocene

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 15:07:47.243677; freshness should be verified

Geography

Vening Meinesz seamount chain, south of Christmas Island, northeastern Indian Ocean