Stratigraphy and Microfauna of Car Nicobar Island Bay of Bengal

The paper gives a complete stratigraphic sequence of Car Nicobar strata for the first time since the work of Schwager. The Sawai Bay formation (consisting of a mudstone member and a limestone member) and the Malacca limestone formation belonging to Archipelago Group are proposed with their type localities defined at Car Nicobar island. Based on the known stratigraphic ranges of planktonic foraminifera, the following three zones are distinguished in ascending order: (1) Globorotalia tumida flexuosa zone, (2) Globigerina nepenthes zone, and (3) Globorotalia multicamerata-Pulleniatina obliqueloculata (s.s.) zone. An Early to Middle Pliocene age is assigned to Schwager's Car Nicobar foraminifera based on planktonic foraminiferal evidence. A comparison of the zonation of Car Nicobar island with zones proposed by Banner and Blow shows that Banner and Blows' sequence is most applicable, and is used in the present work as a basis for comparison.