The proposal is a request for renewal of work documenting the paleoenvironmental history of the glaciomarine Yakataga Formation in the Gulf of Alaska. This 5 km thick unit is a potential high- resolution record of late Cenozoic glacial, climatic and depositional history. This record is being reconstructed on the basis of detailed physical sedimentologic studies and benthic foraminiferal biofacies analysis. The prior research grant has funded detailed studies of extensive Yakataga sections at Yakataga Reef, Icy Bay and Middleton Island. These have provided preliminary models of glaciomarine depositional processes which involve the periodic advance and retreat of tidewater ice margins across the continental margin. The present proposal seeks to initiate an offshore subsurface study utilizing petroleum exploration wells and publically-available seismic lines. This will provide insights into the youngest Yakataga Formation which does not crop out, and better control on depositional geometries in the formation. Once these studies are complete we will be better able to "read" the depositional and paleoenvironmental record of the Yakatage Formation and establish it as a high- resolution climatic and glacial record for the late Cenozoic of the North Pacific. It will also serve as the basis for increasingly detailed glaciomarine facies models.
