Distribution patterns of foraminifera in paleotsunami layers: A review

Abstract

The presence of foraminifera is one of the main criteria for identifying paleotsunami. However, many paleotsunami studies reported the absence of foraminifera, even in the very young paleotsunami layers. One possible contributing factor for such absence is the dissolution of the test after deposition (taphonomical process). To identify the type of environment in which the dissolution process is more susceptible and the type of foraminifera that is the most resistant to dissolution, this study mapped the distribution of foraminifera in paleotsunami layers of different ages deposited in different environments. This study shows that the dissolution process might have occurred in all environments, although dissolution in the peat environment is more effective than others. Many foraminifera are identified in the younger paleotsunami layers, while others can be found in the oldest paleotsunami layers. This indicates that some foraminifera are extremely prone to dissolution while others are very resistant. The results of this study are crucial in reducing the bias in using foraminifera for paleotsunami identification.

Keywords

• Foraminifera
• Dissolution
• Paleotsunami layers
• Review