Geochemical and sedimentological evidence of productivity cycles recorded in Toarcian black shales from the Belluno Basin, Southern Alps, northern Italy

ABSTRACT Organic-carbon-rich black shales cyclically alternating with bioturbated limestones and gray marlstones, which crop out in the Belluno Trough (Southern Alps, Italy), are expression of the early Toarcian anoxic event in the Tethys basin. Sedimentological and geochemical features such as well-developed lamination, common very small ( A negative 13C excursion at the middle part of the studied interval is correlative to maxima in TOC, V/Rb, and Ba/Rb values, identifying, within the Toarcian anoxic event, a stage of more intense bottom-water anoxia coupled with high surface fertility.