Carbon Cycle and Ecosystem Response to the Jenkyns Event in the Early Toarcian (Jurassic)
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The Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event, also known as the Jenkyns Event, was a hyperthermal episode which occurred during the early Toarcian (c. 183 Ma; Early Jurassic) and resulted in numerous collateral effects including global warming, enhanced weathering, sea-level change, carbonate crisis, marine anoxia–dysoxia, and a second-order mass extinction. This volume presents the last advances for understanding early Toarcian environmental changes through different disciplines: biostratigraphy, micropalaeontology, palaeontology, ichnology, palaeoecology, sedimentology, integrated stratigraphy, inorganic, organic and isotopic geochemistry, and cyclostratigraphy. The study of this abrupt climate change is critical for predicting future global changes, and for understanding the complex biogeochemical interactions through time between geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere.
Pacing of late Pliensbachian and early Toarcian carbon cycle perturbations and environmental change in the westernmost Tethys (La Cerradura Section, Subbetic zone of the Betic Cordillera, Spain)
Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected]
Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected]
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Published:November 03, 2021
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CiteCitation
Ricardo L. Silva, Micha Ruhl, Cillian Barry, Matías Reolid, Wolfgang Ruebsam, 2021. "Pacing of late Pliensbachian and early Toarcian carbon cycle perturbations and environmental change in the westernmost Tethys (La Cerradura Section, Subbetic zone of the Betic Cordillera, Spain)", Carbon Cycle and Ecosystem Response to the Jenkyns Event in the Early Toarcian (Jurassic), M. Reolid, L. V. Duarte, E. Mattioli, W. Ruebsam
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Abstract
Detailed assessment of high-resolution elemental and isotopic geochemical datasets collected from the marl–limestone alternations cropping out at La Cerradura (Subbetic domain of the Betic Cordillera, Spain) and chrono- and chemostratigraphic correlation with the reference Mochras borehole (Cardigan Bay Basin, UK) unveiled valuable new insights into understanding of late Pliensbachian–early Toarcian palaeoenvironmental dynamics in a key geographical area between the northern European seaway and the Tethys Ocean. This study shows that deposition in the study area took place under dominantly oxic water column conditions, indicated, for example, by the generalized lack of enrichment in organic matter and redox metals typically associated with anoxia and euxinia. Carbon isotope stratigraphy (δ13CTOC) allowed recognition of the spinatum (=emaciatum in the Submediterranean Province), Pliensbachian–Toarcian, and early Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event negative carbon isotopic excursions and the late Pliensbachian positive carbon isotopic excursion. It is here suggested that the observed periodic changes in lithology and sedimentary geochemistry occur at orbital frequencies (i.e. long and short eccentricity and, tentatively, precession), hinting at an astronomical control of the local–regional climate and environment during the Pliensbachian and Toarcian in the mid- to low-latitude South Iberian palaeomargin area.
- Andalusia Spain
- Betic Cordillera
- C-13/C-12
- carbon
- carbon cycle
- chemical composition
- cosmochemistry
- cyclostratigraphy
- Europe
- geochemical cycle
- geochemistry
- Iberian Peninsula
- isotope ratios
- isotopes
- Jurassic
- lithofacies
- Lower Jurassic
- lower Toarcian
- Mesozoic
- organic compounds
- paleoenvironment
- Pliensbachian
- Southern Europe
- Spain
- stable isotopes
- Subbetic Zone
- Tethys
- Toarcian
- total organic carbon
- La Cerradura Spain