Calibration of the Early Cretaceous Time Scale: A Combined Chemostratigraphic and Cyclostratigraphic Approach to the Barremian-Aptian Interval, Campania Apennines and Southern Alps (Italy)
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Published:January 01, 2004
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CiteCitation
Lukas Wissler, Helmut Weissert, Francesco P. Buonocunto, Vittoria Ferreri, Bruno D’Argenio, 2004. "Calibration of the Early Cretaceous Time Scale: A Combined Chemostratigraphic and Cyclostratigraphic Approach to the Barremian-Aptian Interval, Campania Apennines and Southern Alps (Italy)", Cyclostratigraphy: Approaches and Case Histories, Bruno D’Argenio, Alfred G. Fischer, Isabella Premoli Silva, Helmut Weissert, Vittoria Ferreri
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Abstract
A detailed carbon-isotope stratigraphy has been generated from Barremian to Lower Aptian shallow-water carbonate sections in the Campania Apennines (Monte Raggeto, southern Italy). The new isotope curve is correlated with the magnetostratigraphically and biostratigraphically dated pelagic carbon-isotope stratigraphy from the Cismon locality (Southern Alps, northern Italy). All the major positive and negative carbon-isotope excursions that characterize the Barremian and Early Aptian carbon-isotope stratigraphy can be recognized in the shallow-water curve. Cyclostratigraphy, which was established earlier at the Monte Raggeto section, is used as an age calibration tool for the Barremian and Early Aptian isotope stratigraphy. The duration of the isotopically calibrated stratigraphic interval between the top of Chron M3 and the base of Chron M0 is estimated as 4 My. These time calculations are in good agreement with cyclostratigraphic data from the Cismon locality but differ from estimates based on a magnetic anomaly block model for the interval between M3 and M0 that yield only 3 My. We have also calculated that the Selli Level Equivalent (SLE) at the Monte Raggetto locality was deposited within 1.2 My. Our results demonstrate that the combination of chemostratigraphic and cyclostratigraphic studies can contribute significantly to the calibration of the Mesozoic time scale.
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Contents
Cyclostratigraphy: Approaches and Case Histories

This volume is derived from an SEPM international workshop entitled Multidisciplinary Approach to Cyclostratigraphy, organized by the editors in May 2001 and held in Sorrento (Naples, Italy). In the Introduction we offer a brief history of how concepts of orbital cyclicity and its effects on the Earth evolved, an appraisal of the present state of research, and an overview of the papers in this volume. The main body of the volume consists of the contributed studies. These include a paper on conceptual and pragmatic approaches to stratification cycles by one of the pioneers of cyclostratigraphy, Walther Schwarzacher, who, in the 1940s, discovered the hierarchical expression of orbital cycles in rocks. The other contributions are specific studies of cyclic sequences, extending from the Quaternary back to the Triassic, covering the range from continental deposits to the deep sea, and employing a wide variety of techniques for extracting and processing the information.