0000000000240041

AUTHOR

Michael M. Joachimski

Controls of mud mound formation: The Early Devonian Kess-Kess carbonates of the Hamar Laghdad, Antiatlas, Morocco

The origin and development of Early Devonian (late Pragian to late Zlichovian; predominantly uppermost Zlichovian as indicated by conodont faunas) mud mounds of the Hamar Laghdad area in the eastern Antiatlas, Morocco, are controlled by extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Extrinsic factors include the existence of a paleohigh (Lochkovian volcaniclastics), unidirectional currents and repeated storm events as well as sea level fluctuations. Intrinsic, biologically induced factors are the preferred growth of organisms on the top and the flanks of the mounds because of more favourable ecological conditions, and a rapid synsedimentary lithification of the steep mound flanks by interskeletal cementa…

research product

Was climatic cooling during the earliest Carboniferous driven by expansion of seed plants?

Abstract The expansion of land plants is considered to have played a key role in triggering the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA), but evidence linking climatic events to terrestrial floral changes is limited. Here, we generated bulk carbonate δ13C, conodont δ18O and 87Sr/86Sr profiles from the lowermost Carboniferous of South China and Vietnam in order to investigate their relationship to contemporaneous land plant evolution. Climatic cooling in the mid-Tournaisian coincided with large perturbations to the global carbon cycle and continental weathering regimes as well as with a major diversification episode among seed plants. These relationships are consistent with terrestrial floral changes t…

research product

Reply on Comment by Longinelli (2013) on a revised phosphate-water fractionation equation.

Longinelli (2013) contests the new phosphate–water oxygenisotopefractionation equationpresentedforfishteethin Puceatetal. (2010), and more specifically the pooling of the data of Puceatet al. (2010) with those of Longinelli and Nuti (1973b),performedto better constrain the regression parameters of the fractionationequation.Firstly, Longinelli (2013) criticizes that only 17 of the 24 datareported in Longinelli and Nuti (1973b) appear in Fig. 3. Doubtwas cast on whether the fish data of Longinelli and Nuti (1973b)were mixed with those of marine molluscs from Longinelli andNuti (1973a). Only oxygen isotope ratios of fish (Longinelli andNuti, 1973b) have been taken into account in Puceat et al. (20…

research product

Revised phosphate-water fractionation equation reassessing paleotemperatures derived from biogenic apatite.

8 pages; International audience; Oxygen isotopes of biogenic apatite have been widely used to reassess anomalous temperatures inferred from oxygen isotope ratios of ancient biogenic calcite, more prone to diagenetic alteration. However, recent studies have highlighted that oxygen isotope ratios of biogenic apatite differ dependent on used analytical techniques. This questions the applicability of the phosphate–water fractionation equations established over 25 years ago using earlier analytical techniques to more recently acquired data. In this work we present a new phosphate–water oxygen isotope fractionation equation based on oxygen isotopes determined on fish raised in aquariums at contro…

research product

Coralline alga reveals first marine record of subarctic North Pacific climate change

[1] While recent changes in subarctic North Pacific climate had dramatic effects on ecosystems and fishery yields, past climate dynamics and teleconnection patterns are poorly understood due to the absence of century-long high-resolution marine records. We present the first 117-year long annually resolved marine climate history from the western Bering Sea/Aleutian Island region using information contained in the calcitic skeleton of the long-lived crustose coralline red alga Clathromorphum nereostratum, a previously unused climate archive. The skeletal δ18O-time series indicates significant warming and/or freshening of surface waters after the middle of the 20th century. Furthermore, the ti…

research product

Water mass exchange and variations in seawater temperature in the NW Tethys during the Early Jurassic: evidence from neodymium and oxygen isotopes of fish teeth and belemnites.

10 pages; International audience; Oxygen and neodymium isotope analyses performed on biostratigraphically well-dated fish remains recovered from the Hettangian to Toarcian of the Paris Basin were used to reconstruct variations of Early Jurassic seawater temperature and to track oceanographic changes in the NW Tethys. Our results indicate a strong correlation between δ18O trends recorded by fish remains and belemnites, confirming the paleoenvironmental origin of oxygen isotope variations. Interestingly, temperatures recorded by pelagic fishes and nektobenthic belemnites and bottom dwelling fishes are comparable during the Late Pliensbachian sea-level lowstand but gradually differ during the …

research product

Isotopic seawater temperatures in the Albian Gault Clay of the Boulonnais (Paris Basin): Palaeoenvironmental implications

13 pages; International audience; Oxygen isotopes were measured on several types of fossil hardparts from the Gault Clay Formation including benthic and planktonic foraminifera, belemnite guards, and fish small-teeth. Belemnites δ18O values indicate low temperatures (13.5–19.3 °C) with an increase from the Middle to Late Albian. Foraminifera provide variable δ18O values, some too low to be relevant in terms of temperature (until 42 °C). These low values probably result from a diagenetic alteration of the foraminiferal tests even though SEM observations revealed well-preserved microstructures. However, higher foraminiferal δ18O values recorded in some levels indicate temperatures in the rang…

research product

Climatic ups and downs in a disturbed Jurassic world.

4 pages; International audience; The tropical, warm, and equable climate of the Jurassic world is regularly challenged by geoscientists, especially since oxygen isotopes ( 18O) of fossil hardparts have been used to reconstruct the paleotemperature history of seawater. By applying the innovative “SiZer” (significant zero crossings of the derivatives) statistical approach to a newly compiled 18O database for the Jurassic, we demonstrate the occurrence of major and multiscale 18O changes mainly related to climate disturbances. For the first time, two long-term anomalies in 18O are identified during the Toarcian and the Late Jurassic, in conjunction with intensive volcanism in large igneous pro…

research product

Empirical calibration of the clumped isotope paleothermometer using calcites of various origins

We present the first universal calibration of the clumped isotope thermometer for calcites of various mineralizing types. These are an eggshell of an ostrich, a tropical bivalve, a brachiopod shell, cold seep carbonate, and three foraminifera samples that grew between 9 and 38 C. CaCO3 was digested at 90 C using a common acid bath. Considering a difference in phosphoric acid fractionation factors between reaction at 25 and 90 C of 0.069& (Guo et al., 2009), the function between growth temperature T and the excess of 13 C– 18 O bonds in the evolved CO2 is expressed by a linear regression between 1/T 2 and absolute D47 (R 2 = 0.9915):

research product

Climatic fluctuations and seasonality during the Late Jurassic (Oxfordian–Early Kimmeridgian) inferred from delta18O of Paris Basin oyster shells.

10 pages; International audience; Oxygen isotope data from biostratigraphically well-dated oyster shells from the Late Jurassic of the eastern Paris Basin are used to reconstruct the thermal evolution of western Tethyan surface waters during the Early Oxfordian–Early Kimmeridgian interval. Seventy eight oyster shells were carefully screened for potential diagenetic alteration using cathodoluminescence microscopy. Isotope analyses were performed on nonluminescent parts of shells (n=264). Intra-shell δ18O variability was estimated by microsampling along a transect perpendicular to the growth lines of the largest oyster shell. The sinusoidal distribution of the δ18O values along this transect …

research product

The Valanginian isotope event: a complex suite of palaeoenvironmental perturbations.

17 pages; International audience; The Valanginian records a severe crisis of carbonate systems, both on platforms and in the pelagic realm. This crisis is roughly concomitant with the Weissert Event, characterized by a positive δ13C excursion of about 2‰in marine carbonates. However, it is unclear if the response of these two carbonate systems to the global perturbations is contemporaneous, or if they react differently. For this purpose, accumulation rates of pelagic carbonates produced by nannofossils and of platform-derived carbonates have been quantified in a hemipelagic environment (the Vocontian Basin, SE France) that has the potential to record the reaction of both shallow-water and p…

research product