Wheeler and Curran (1974) have described the foraminifera in the Upper 

 Cretaceous deposits of the Carolina Coastal Plain. Many of the forami- 

 niferal species listed by these authors as abundant or characteristic 

 are well represented in the inner shelf cores. 



c. Paleocene Deposits . Two apparently separate Paleocene deposits 

 occur in Long Bay. One was sampled by cores 6, 7, 10, 12, 15, 29, and 

 30 and the other by cores 4, 9, 14, 32, 33, and 38. Although available 

 seismic profiles do not provide conclusive evidence because of low 

 resolution, it is reasonably certain that Paleocene sands in cores 6, 7, 

 10, 12, 15, 29, and 30 are from seismic reflection unit I and not from 

 the thin overlying deposits. Therefore, all of unit I south of a shore- 

 parallel line somewhere between cores 16 and 30 is likely of Paleocene 

 age. Shore-normal seismic profiles extending from the inshore part of 

 unit I, where Cretaceous material occurs, to the Paleocene section show 

 no break in the regular seaward-dipping internal reflectors of unit I 

 between these areas (see App. A, profiles 21, 22, and 23). Therefore, 

 the deposition of unit I possibly proceeded in an unbroken succession 

 from Late Cretaceous to Paleocene time. Colquhoun, et al . (1969) found 

 no evidence of a major hiatus between Upper Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary 

 deposits in the Coastal Plain of South Carolina. 



The Paleocene sediments from unit I consist of very fine to fine 

 quartz sand of typical type C lithology with little apparent difference 

 from the Cretaceous material. However, faunal remains, which consist 

 almost entirely of foraminifera, are significantly less abundant. The 

 foraminiferal assemblages are varied in diversity and composition but 

 all are dominated by Anamalinoides neumanae Cushman and Cibioides howelli. 

 Toulmin . 



The benthonic fauna, as a whole, suggests that the deposit is of 

 early Paleocene age. The planktonic fauna, which contains, among other 

 species, Globigevina pseudobulloides Plummer, Globorotalia aompressa 

 Plummer, and Globoconusa daub g erg ensis (Bronniman) , indicates correlation 

 with the Cenozoic planktonic foraminiferal zone PI, as classified by 

 Berggren (1972). Though barren of any fossils, seismic reflection data 

 and sediment lithology suggest that the type C sand in cores 12 and 29 

 also belongs to this Paleocene deposit. 



The second deposit (cores 4, 9, 14, 32, 33, and 38) consists of 

 material that is heterogeneous and not similar to the material found in 

 unit I. Cores 9 and 14 contain fine to medium sand with more glauconite 

 (25 percent) than any other sediments recovered from the study area. 

 Cores 4, 32, 33, and 38 contain poorly to well-consolidated calcareous 

 sandstone with shell casts and molds. Core 33 also contains abundant 

 sand-size glauconite which is incorporated in the rock. Of this group, 

 core 14 recovered the only material with well-preserved faunal remains; 

 these consist chiefly of foraminifera dominated by two species 

 Anamalinoides umbonifera and Gyroidinoides cf . G. octaoamerata (Cushman 

 and Hanna) . Planktonic foraminifera are rare in core 14 and most are of 

 one species, Globigerina pseudobulloides Plummer. Very sparse and often 

 poorly preserved foraminiferal tests in the rock recovered in cores 4, 



55 



