Jökull


Jökull - 01.12.2007, Side 13

Jökull - 01.12.2007, Side 13
Early Pleistocene molluscan migration to Iceland THE MÁNÁ FORMATION, BREIÐAVÍK GROUP, NORTHERN ICELAND The Máná Formation of the Breiðavík Group is ex- posed in the eastern part of Breiðavík Bay on the Tjörnes Peninsula, northern Iceland. It consists of sediments capped by reverse polarity lava flows, the Máná basalts. The lowermost part of the basalts has been K/Ar dated to !1.13 Ma (Albertsson, 1978). As we have not found a glacially striated erosional contact, erosional unconformity, glacial sediments or glacial pyroclastic products (palagonite) between the sediments and the overlying lava, it is concluded that they were piled up during the same interglacial pe- riod and therefore the bottom lava is considered to be of the same age as the uppermost sediments (cf. Eiríksson, 1981). The Breiðavík Group has been thor- oughly mapped by Eiríksson (1981, 1985) and the faunal assemblages were described by Vilhjálmsson (1985). The sediments and the lavas of the Breiðavík Group were piled up in a sedimentary basin and the Máná Formation was probably formed during the final stages of the infilling of this basin (Eiríksson, 1981). Obviously the sedimentary basin on the north side of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in western Iceland and the Breiðavík basin on the Tjörnes Peninsula in northern Iceland were contemporaneous for a while, when the infilling of the basin was almost at an end in Breiða- vík and was in its initial phases on Snæfellsnes. This is unique for Pleistocene sedimentary basins in Ice- land, although the location in two different volcanic zones is not surprising. The lowest part of the Máná Formation, divided into the Stapavík Member and the Torfhóll Mem- ber, consists of sediments corresponding to Bárðar- son’s horizon 13 and 14 (Bárðarson, 1925; Eiríksson, 1981). The base of the formation consists of a di- amictite bed up to 4 m in thickness, which is trun- cated towards the south by an erosional unconformity (Figure 3). The diamictite is succeeded by an up to 18 m thick conglomerate with sandstone lenses and common high angle and folded bedding. It also con- tains angular diamictite boulders redeposited from the underlying diamictite. This strongly indicates that the diamictite was already lithified when the conglomer- ate was deposited and that the underlying unconfor- mity apparently represents a considerable hiatus. This conglomerate is overlain by an up to 10 m thick cross- bedded and flat-bedded conglomerate that grades lo- cally upwards into sandstone and rests on progres- sively older sediments towards the south. In places this bed is severely folded. The upper conglomerate is succeeded by massive siltstone, faintly laminated near the base and up to 4 m in thickness. It is fossiliferous and contains marine molluscs belonging to the Ma- coma assemblage. The top of the siltstone is grada- tional and no sharp contact is seen with the overlying fine-grained sandstone which is up to 14 m in thick- ness. It is faintly cross-bedded, with rare erratics and abundant marine molluscan fossils of the Macoma- Serripes-Clinocardium assemblage (Table 2). The sandstone is overlain by pillowy lava, the lowermost flow of the Máná basalt, that here obviously reached the sea. The marine siltstone has been considered to be la- goonal sediment, which became covered by bar sed- iments during a following transgression (Eiríksson, 1985). THE MARINE FAUNAL ASSEMBLAGES The marine faunal assemblages in the Búlandshöfði Formation contain 43 species of marine molluscs and barnacles as shown in Table 1 (also Leifsdóttir, 1999). In the Búland Member the bivalve shells are gener- ally broken and disarticulated and not in situ, a condi- tion that strongly indicates death assemblage (thana- tocoenosis), probably due to wave and current action and considerable environmental energy. On the other hand, in the Höfði Member the shells are generally articulated and undamaged and in situ, strongly indi- cating life assemblage (biocoenosis) due to lower en- vironmental energy. There are three layers yielding marine molluscs in the Búland Member. The mol- luscs belong to theMacoma-Portlandia bottom infau- nal assemblage with the bivalve taxodont P. arctica as a prominent species (Table 1). The number of species decreases strongly upward in the Búland Member, es- pecially the more arctic species. Four layers yielding marine molluscs are found from the Höfði Member. The layers contain ther- mophilic molluscs such as Littorina littorea, Nu- JÖKULL No. 57 11
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