Chronostratigraphic significance of late Cenozoic planktonic foraminifera from the Ventura Basin, California; potential for improving tectonic and depositional interpretation

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Abstract
We have compiled a chronostratigraphic framework for the late Cenozoic borderland basis of central and southern California on the basis of evolutionary datums of temperate North Pacific planktonic foraminifera and of paleoclimatically controlled coiling shifts in Neogloboquadrina pachyderma. All datums are calibrated against paleomagnetic and tephra stratigraphies, and are correlated with the DNAG time scale. The resulting chronostratigraphic framework is appied to three key sections from the central Ventura basin (Wheeler Canyon, Santa Paula Creek and Balcom Canyon) and provides improved chonostratigraphic correlations between ca. 0.7 and 3.0 Ma. This approach can potentially provide detailed chronostratigraphic correlations for the past 5 My. Because borderland basins along this tectonically active margin contain thick, stratigraphically complex and rapidly-accumulated sequences of basin-fill, the proposed chronostratigraphic correlations will help reconstruct the depositional and paleoceanographic history of this area. In addition, these correlations can provide the basis of improved exploration strategies for stratigraphic traps in late Cenozoic bathyal rocks.