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The wider context of the Lower Jurassic Toarcian oceanic anoxic event in Yorkshire coastal outcrops, UK

Thibault, Nicolas; Ruhl, Micha; Ullmann, Clemens V.; Korte, Christoph; Kemp, David B.; Gröcke, Darren R.; Hesselbo, Stephen P.

The wider context of the Lower Jurassic Toarcian oceanic anoxic event in Yorkshire coastal outcrops, UK Thumbnail


Authors

Nicolas Thibault

Micha Ruhl

Clemens V. Ullmann

Christoph Korte

David B. Kemp

Stephen P. Hesselbo



Abstract

The Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE, ∼183 Ma) was characterized by enhanced carbon burial, a prominent negative carbon-isotope excursion (CIE) in marine carbonate and organic matter, and numerous geochemical anomalies. A precursor excursion has also been documented at the Pliensbachian/Toarcian boundary, but its possible causes are less constrained. The T-OAE is intensively studied in the Cleveland Basin, Yorkshire, UK, whose sedimentary deposits have been litho-, bio- and chemostratigraphically characterised. Here, we present new elemental data produced by hand-held X-ray fluorescence analysis to test the expression of redox-sensitive trace metals and detrital elements across the upper Pliensbachian to mid-Toarcian of the Cleveland Basin. Detrital elemental concentrations (Al, Si, Ti, Zr) are used as proxies for siliciclastic grain content and thus, sea-level change, which match previous sequence stratigraphic interpretations from the Cleveland Basin. The timescale of the event is debated, though our new elemental proxies of relative sea level change show evidence for a cyclicity of 350 cm that may be indicative of ∼405 kyr eccentricity cycles in Yorkshire. Trends in total organic carbon and redox-sensitive elements (S, Fe, Mo, As) confirm scenarios of widespread ocean deoxygenation across the T-OAE. The correlation of comparable trends in Mo across the T-OAE in Yorkshire and the Paris Basin suggests a similar oceanic drawdown of this element accompanying widespread anoxia in the two basins. Data from Yorkshire point to a transgressive trend at the time of the Mo drawdown, which contradicts the “basin restriction” model for the euxinic conditions that characterise the CIE interval.

Citation

Thibault, N., Ruhl, M., Ullmann, C. V., Korte, C., Kemp, D. B., Gröcke, D. R., & Hesselbo, S. P. (2018). The wider context of the Lower Jurassic Toarcian oceanic anoxic event in Yorkshire coastal outcrops, UK. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 129(3), 372-391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2017.10.007

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 24, 2017
Online Publication Date Dec 13, 2017
Publication Date Jun 1, 2018
Deposit Date Oct 4, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Proceedings of the Geologists' Association
Print ISSN 0016-7878
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 129
Issue 3
Pages 372-391
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2017.10.007

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