Recent diatom and foraminiferal assemblages in surficial sediments of Prydz Bay, Antarctica.

Surficial bottom sediments collected from Prydz Bay, Antarctica contain three sedimentary facies, four foraminiferal faunas, and two diatom floras. A sandy diamict (Facies Ds) is deposited by iceberg rafting and reworked by currents of the Prydz Bay Cyclonic Gyre. A massive mud (Facies Mm) represents the sediments being supplied to the Bay and could provide a high resolution record of the Quaternary in Antarctica. A carbonate sand (Facies Cs) is a modern cold water carbonate deposited under special conditions on the outer continental shelf.

The presence of planktonic flora and fauna, and variations in sedimentological parameters are consistent with the physical oceanographic evidence for a large cyclonic gyre operating in the Bay.

The fields in this dataset are: Sight Device Comments Depth (m) Sample Foram Diatom Percentages of Individual species Number of individuals counted. Plankton