MELILLO, ALLAN J., Chevron USA Production Company, New Orleans, LA; and BRUCE W. FOUKE and WILLIAM J. MEYERS, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY

ABSTRACT: Foraminifers from the Seroe Domi Formation, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles: Chronologic and Paleobathymetric Interpretations

The integration of foraminiferal biostratigraphy with sedimentology, field relationships, 87Sr/86Sr chronology, and paleomagnetic reversal stratigraphy suggests that the basal 30 m of the Seroe Domi Formation was deposited as a series of shelf-derived carbonate gravity flows interbedded with pelagic oozes in deep-water fore-reef to carbonate slope paleoenvironments during the middle Miocene.

Wackestones from the base of the Seroe Domi contain a planktic foraminiferal fauna which includes Praeorbulina glomerosa circularis (Blow) but lacks members of Orbulina, suggesting a correlation with the middle Miocene Praeorbulina glomerosa zone. The benthic foraminiferal fauna in these sediments suggests deposition in a bathyal paleoenvironment of at least 500 m water depth. Deep-water deposition is further suggested by the compositional similarity of interbedded conglomeratic grainstones, wackestones, and allochthonous blocks with sediments described in previous studies of modern and ancient Caribbean periplatform environments.

Modelled hyperbolic asymptotes of covariations between Sr, C, and O isotopes in texturally unaltered, partially altered, and completely altered specimens of the oyster Ostrea frons in basal Subunit 1 grainstones suggest that their original {87}Sr/{86}Sr was 0.70879, implying a complementary depositional age of 13.8 +/- 1.4 Ma (after Hodell et al., 1991).

Magnetostratigraphic analysis of the entire Subunit 1 section yields 13 reversals which, when correlated with respect to the P. Glomerosa zone, suggest that the sequence represents multiple episodic depositional events that may have extended throughout the middle Miocene.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90987©1993 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25-28, 1993.