Modern Radiolarians Recovered from the Mudline Samples at IODP-341 Sites in the South Alaska Basin, North East Pacific Ocean

Abstract

The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 341 drilled the 5 sites (U1417-U1421) across the Surveyor channel near the Aleutian trench in the Gulf of Alaska to study the sedimentation during middle Miocene to Recent periods for the climatic changes in the region. Out of the 5 sites drilled, the radiolarians microfossils were found in the deep water sites (namely U1417-19) and provided the biostratigraphy of the sediment cores ranging from the middle Miocene to Pleistocene periods. It motivated and encouraged the author to find out the radiolarians species present over the drill sites in the modern time. Radiolarians recovered from the watery sediment slurry (termed as mudline) present at the sediment-water interface on the top of the core barrels are studied at the species level, and are documented herein