Wooster Geologists in Jamaica
May 2001

Senior Independent Study
Department of Geology
The College of Wooster
Students: Sara Austin, Jerome Hall, Andrea Martin
Advisor: Mark A. Wilson
 
Supported by the Danner Fund, a generous gift from Dr. Ted Danner

The Falmouth Formation is a Late Pleistocene (Last Interglacial, roughly Eemian or Sangamonian) carbonate unit in Jamaica. The bulk of the unit contains in situ coral reef, coral debris, and back-reef and fore-reef facies. The College of Wooster team is investigating the possibility that the Falmouth records a eustatic sea level change in the last interglacial noted by Mark Wilson and his colleagues in the Bahamas and elsewhere. This sea level change has global climatic implications. Another goal is to study the paleoecology and stratigraphy of the unit to test various models which have been proposed by previous workers.

Lagoon at Discovery Bay, Jamaica, just west of the Discovery Bay Marine Lab. The rocks are all of the Late Pleistocene Falmouth Formation, consisting mostly of reefal facies. A larger version of this beautiful image is available.

The Wooster Geology Senior I.S. students on the Jamaica Project, sitting very carefully on the sharp karst of the weathered Falmouth Formation. Front to back: Andrea Martin, Sara Austin, and Jerome Hall. A larger image is available -- close enough to see bug bites!
 This project was made possible by the Danner Fund, which was established by Ted Danner, a former Wooster faculty member now retired from the University of British Columbia. Dr. Danner intended his gift to support Senior Independent Study field research at Wooster. We are very grateful for his support and encouragement of the Wooster geology program.

Map of Jamaica showing the location of Discovery Bay. The Falmouth Formation was sampled and studied at Discovery Bay and Rio Bueno Harbour, just to its west. A much larger version of this map is available, on which you can read the place names.

All the Falmouth Formation exposures are on the Jamaican coast, which makes sense because it is a fairly recent coastal unit. The unit is usually deeply eroded by karstic weathering and biological activity from the modern sea. In some places, though, relatively fresh exposures are available. These outcrops are most often poorly cemented, allowing easy collection of fossils but a more difficult assessment of diagenesis.

The upper Falmouth Formation exposed at Richie Richie's Resort on the west headland of Rio Bueno Harbour. Note the block of coral (Diploria strigosa) and the numerous algal rhodoliths (white rounded objects). A larger version of this image is available.

Page 2 of the Wooster Jamaica Project Webpages