9. Geochemical and Faunal Characterization in the Sediments off the Cuban North and Northwest Coast

This chapter provides a summary of the scientific knowledge about sediments and fauna in the margin of northwest Cuban shelf. Little scientific information is publicly available, and so much of what is discussed here is the result of the scientific expedition to the region in May 2017 on board the R/V Weatherbird II as part of the GoMRI consortium, C-IMAGE (see Foreword, this book). The goal was to set broad environmental baselines against which to evaluate the impacts of any potential future oil spill or other disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The chapter is organized in three parts: (1) overview of the geographical setting of Cuban margin of GoM; (2) sediment characterization including texture, composition, and geochronology of sediment cores; and (3) characterization of key bioindicators of oil impact: mollusks, meiofauna, and foraminifera.