Foraminifera from the Irish Sea glacigenic deposits at Aberdaron,western Lleyn,North Wales: Palaeoenvironmental implications

In a sequence of glacigenic sediments at Aberdaron, Foraminifera were obtained from samples located specifically in order to differentiate between opposing models of depositional environment. All the diamict samples yielded remarkably uniform assemblages, with similar numbers of benthic specimens and benthic species per unit weight of sediment, similar planktic : benthic ratios, and similar ratios of clearly allochthonous to possibly autochthonous elements. This is precisely as predicted by the terrestrial model of sedimentation, where all of the sediments are interpreted as being derived from the melting of glacier ice rich in marine debris entrained during passage along the Irish Sea Basin. The results lend no support to a glacial marine model, since no faunal responses to increasingly distal sedimentary environments are observed. However, the fauna is dominated by the Foraminifera Elphidium excavatum (Terquem) forma clavata Cushman, which is commonly assumed to indicate glacial marine conditions. The modern distribution of similar assemblages suggests that it is just as likely to represent the cold, reduced salinity conditions that would have prevailed in the northern Irish Sea Basin for much of the Quaternary.