Carbon-isotope composition of Lower Cretaceous fossil wood: Ocean-atmosphere chemistry and relation to sea-level change
- Univ. of Oxford (United Kingdom). Dept. of Earth Sciences
The carbon-isotope composition of fossil wood fragments, collected through a biostratigraphically well-constructed Aptian (Lower Cretaceous) shallow-marine siliciclastic succession on the Isle of Wight, southern Britain, shows distinct variations with time. The results indicate that the stratigraphic signature of {delta}{sup 13}C{sub wood} through the Aptian was influenced primarily by fluctuations in the isotopic composition of CO{sub 2} in the global ocean-atmosphere system, as registered in marine carbonates elsewhere, and was not governed by local paleoenvironmental and/or paleoecological factors. Negative and positive excursions in {delta}{sup 13}C{sub wood} through the lower Aptian occur in phase with inferred transgressions and regressions, respectively -- a pattern that contrasts with that observed in many previous studies for different time intervals. The relationship between {delta}{sup 13}C variations and relative sea-level change is tentatively interpreted as a response to various climatic and eustatic factors, relating to rapid sea-floor spreading, thermal uplift of ocean floor, emplacement of plateaus, volcanic CO{sub 2} emissions, weathering, and sedimentary rate.
- OSTI ID:
- 329240
- Journal Information:
- Geology, Vol. 27, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: Feb 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Sequence stratigraphic features of nonmarine Cretaceous sediments in Songliao basin, northeast China
Geochemical and mineralogical evidence for relative and eustatic sea levels changes in Eocene to Oligocene carbonates in Alabama