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Since the 1950s, modern shallow-water environments in subtropical to tropical regions that are actively producing carbonate sediments, the building material for carbonate platforms, have been choice research areas for carbonate sedimentologists. These carbonate factories serve as modern analogs for ancient carbonate environments, but knowledge of the processes controlling evolution of carbonate platforms, from their initiation through growth and demise, remains rudimentary. Understanding these processes is crucial for our interpretation of the rock record in ancient carbonate platforms.

Taphonomic studies have provided valuable information on depositional and post-burial conditions of sediments. Deep sea oozes, by definition, are predominantly composed of the skeletal remains of pelagic organisms. These skeletal accumulations are similar in many ways to those of shallow-marine invertebrates, which have been the typical subjects of taphonomic analysis. We consider the problem of obtaining meaningful information from taphonomic analysis of pelagic microfossils, and the relationship between microfossil taphonomy and sediment fabric. Using examples from the biosiliceous oozes of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 751, we evaluate taphonomic concepts developed by previous workers for analysis of macrofossil skeletal accumulations and relate these to out observations of sediment fabric

In view of recent controversy over the number and timing of late Eocene impact events, we evaluated biostratigraphic correlations at Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Site 612, New Jersey continental slope. Radiolarian and foraminiferal biostratigraphy indicate that the tektite layer at Site 612 is biostratigraphically older than a microtektite layer in Barbados which has been correlated with the North American strewn field. Strontium and oxygen isotope stratigraphies are consistent with magnetobiostratigraphic correlations. The late Eocene impact events do not correlate with climate changes inferred from the marine isotope record