Karina Fernandes

PhD Project:

Palynological correlation of Mississipian (Carboniferous) stage boundaries in Western Europe and the USA

Supervisor: Geoff Clayton

Co-supervisor: Dr Cortland Eble (Kentucky State Geological Survey)

The main objective of this project is to produce a miospore zonation for Mississippian stage boundaries in the Midwest USA. In the first year, the focus will be on material collected from type sections in the Mississippi valley as well as outcrops from around St Louis , with the aim that this will provide a framework for the miospore zonation. This work will be built upon further by studying material collected from sections to the east, including those in Kentucky , where a complete Mississippian composite section contains shales that are well suited to palynological research.

A decision by the IUGS Subcommission on Carboniferous Stratigraphy to globally recognise the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian as subsystems of the Carboniferous, has highlighted difficulties in correlating stages on a global scale. On the completion of the USA miospore zonation, the final objective of the project will be to provide a palynological correlation of the boundaries of the constituent stages of the Mississippian in the USA with the boundaries of the stages in Western Europe.