Abstract: The Moodys Branch Formation and North Twistwood Creek Clay Member of the Yazoo Clay represent relative sea-level Cycle TE 3.2 in the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain. Examination of Cycle TE 3.2 in two cores in Mississippi separated by 185 km in an east–west direction (the Mississippi Office of Geology #1 Mossy Grove core in Hinds County and the Mobil–Mississippi #1 Young in Wayne County) was undertaken to identify benthic foraminiferal assemblages. The goal was to gain insight into paleoecologic conditions, especially relative paleobathymetry, in two distinct locations within the sedimentary record of the same relative sea-level cycle. In both cores, the Moodys Branch Formation represents the Transgressive Systems Tract (TST) and the North Twistwood Creek Clay Member of the Yazoo Clay represents the Highstand Systems Tract (HST). Foraminifera were picked from a total of 40 samples from the Young core and 55 from the Mossy Grove core. A census of the total population of benthic foraminifera represented was obtained for each sample. These values were analyzed by hierarchal cluster analysis with the goal of identifying meaningful assemblages of benthic foraminifera within the Moodys Branch Formation and Yazoo Clay. Four clusters of samples correlate with the benthic foraminiferal biofacies ( Nonion, Siphonina–Cibicidoides, Hanzawaia, Uvigerina ) previously recognized in the St. Stephens core in western Alabama. Two clusters of samples in the Young core define assemblages ( Textularia, Discorbis–Quinqueloculina ) that had no analog in the St. Stephens core. The results of this study show two different successions of benthic foraminiferal biofacies in the cores. The succession of assemblages in the Young core is characteristic of a shallowing of paleobathymetry, while the pattern in the Mossy Grove core represents increasing depth. It is suggested that the biofacies succession of the Young core was produced in a section dominated by sediment supply, while the succession in the Mossy Grove core was dominated by subsidence.

The Eocene-Oligocene transition in the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain of Alabama and Mississippi occurs within a sequence of marine clastic rocks making up the Jackson Group and the lower Vicksburg Group. The placement and the nature of the Eocene-Oligocene boundary remain controversial after more than 20 yr of detailed study. In Alabama, the Eocene-Oligocene boundary is placed within a condensed section at the contact between the Shubuta Member of the Yazoo Clay and the Red Bluff Clay. In eastern Mississippi, the Eocene-Oligocene boundary is recognized through the use of planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils as also occurring at the Yazoo–Red Bluff contact, but this surface is considered an unconformity representing a sequence boundary. In the Mossy Grove core of western Mississippi, planktonic foraminifera, in conjunction with radiometrically dated bentonites, place the Eocene-Oligocene boundary within the upper Yazoo Clay. There is a pronounced turnover in benthic foraminiferal species between the Yazoo Clay of the Jackson Group and the Red Bluff Clay of the Vicksburg Group. This turnover does not occur at the biostratigraphic Eocene-Oligocene boundary within the Yazoo Clay in western Mississippi. Rather, it occurs above the unconformity associated with the base of the Vicksburg Group throughout the Gulf Coastal Plain. This unconformity was produced by a fall in relative sea level, possibly associated with the oxygen isotope event Oi-1. In some sections in the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain (Little Stave Creek, Saint Stephens Quarry, and the Mossy Grove core), the Eocene-Oligocene boundary as defined at the Massignano global stratotype section and point can be recognized. In most sections in the region, however, such as those in the Chickasawhay River valley of Mississippi, subaerial erosion associated with the basal Vicksburg unconformity has removed the latest Eocene and earliest Oligocene (pre–Oi-1) rocks. This means that in most cases in the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain, the Eocene-Oligocene boundary is coincident with a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic surface associated with the Oi-1 event rather than the highest occurrence of Hantkenina. The Jackson Group—Vicksburg Group contact, with its associated turnovers in benthic foraminifera, is important in identifying the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain. Work currently under way by Charles Betz at Ball State University on stable isotopes in both the Yazoo Clay and Red Bluff Clay will help to further characterize this boundary in the Gulf Coastal Plain and enhance understanding of this important transition.

Abstract The sequence stratigraphy of the lower Oligocene in the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain of Alabama and Mississippi has been the focus of research since the early 1980s. The Red Bluff Clay and its correlatives have long been recognized as the lowermost Oligocene lithostratigraphic units in the region. The contact of the Red Bluff Clay with the underlying Shubuta Clay Member of the Yazoo Clay is considered by most workers to be the Eocene–Oligocene boundary. Interpretations of the Vailian sequence stratigraphy of this interval vary, with the Yazoo–Red Bluff contact being viewed as a maximum flooding surface by some workers and as a depositional sequence boundary by others. If the uppermost Yazoo Clay is a condensed section within a sequence, the overlying Red Bluff Clay is a part of the highstand systems tract. If the Yazoo–Red Bluff contact is a depositional sequence boundary, the Red Bluff Clay is a part of the transgressive systems tract. Nearly two decades of studies of this interval have failed to resolve this question satisfactorily. Benthic foraminiferal assemblages and planktic:benthic (P:B) ratios can provide proxies for fluctuating sea level. Both the Yazoo Clay and the Red Bluff Clay are rich in foraminifera that provide additional data for the study of the sequence stratigraphy of the Yazoo–Red Bluff contact. Benthic foraminifera were collected from the upper Shubuta Clay Member of the Yazoo Clay and from the Red Bluff Clay in the Mobil–Mississippi cores in Wayne County, Mississippi, with the goal of understanding the detailed paleoecology of this interval. Samples were taken at 10 cm intervals through the upper Yazoo Clay and the Red Bluff Clay. Samples collected from outcrops of this interval at Little Stave Creek in Alabama and along the Chickasawhay River in Mississippi were also processed for foraminifera. The benthic foraminiferal assemblage in the Red Bluff Clay is characterized by Cibicidoides pippeni, Cibicidoides cookei, Hanzawaia mississippiensis, Lenticulina vicksburgensis, Siphonina advena, Spiroplectammina latior, Massilina cookei, and Uvigerina vicksburgensis. Subtle changes in species composition are present from sample to sample. This Cibicidoides-Hanzawaia benthic foraminiferal assemblage is characteristic of middle-neritic environments in the early Oligocene and contrasts with the outer-neritic Uvigerina-Bulimina assemblage collected from the upper Yazoo Clay. Planktonic:benthic (P:B) ratios are lower at the base of the Red Bluff than in the upper Yazoo but increase upwards through the Red Bluff before falling sharply in the upper half. The Yazoo–Red Bluff contact also marks the appearances of numerous species typical of the Vicksburg benthic foraminiferal fauna. The benthic foraminiferal assemblages collected in this study suggest that the Red Bluff Clay was formed as a part of a transgressive systems tract in a depositional sequence. It represents the earliest Oligocene transgression in the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain and is likely associated with the end of the Oi-1 glacial event. Geologic Problem Solving with Microfossils: A Volume in Honor of Garry D. Jones SEPM Special Publication No. 93, Copyright © 2009 SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology), ISBN 978-1-56576-137-7, p. 293-307.