Rhenium‑osmium geochronology of the Toarcian Posidonia Shale, SW Germany

Abstract Black shale samples from sedimentary layers below and between the Unterer Stein, Oberer Stein, Inoceramus Bank, and Nagelkalk horizons from the Dormettingen quarry, SW Germany were analysed for their Re and Os isotope composition and content. The ~12-m-thick sedimentary sequence of the Posidonia Shale Formation, composed of multiple layers of black shale and intercalated limestone beds, was deposited during the Early Jurassic (Toarcian), a time during which black shale sedimentation was ubiquitous in Western Europe during a widespread oceanic anoxic event. Both the marl and shale layers beneath the black shales and adjacent to the Oberer Stein limestone layer show signs of bioturba…