engleski

Late Jurassic facies stacking patterns in the interior of the Adriatic Platform: evidence for greenhouse climate in Mesozoic cool mode

Although the Mesozoic has long been considered greenhouse, the stacking patterns on Jurassic-Cretaceous platforms suggest that some intervals have formed under sea level changes that are too large for an ice free world. This is manifested in juxtaposition of facies or biotas in parasequences that represent 10 to 30 m shifts in water depths in excess of that expected from simple shallowing of several meters (the parasequence thickness). The presence of obliquity and short and long term eccentricity cycles also is suggestive of ice rather than the abundant precessional cycles that typify greenhouse platforms. We present data showing that the Late Tithonian of the Adriatic Platform represents a greenhouse phase. Well exposed Mesozoic sections along the southern Dalmatian islands (southern Croatia) can be used to evaluate the Jurassic-Cretaceous paleoclimate. The detailed stacking patterns of facies within the Late Jurassic (Tithonian) shallow platform interior (over 700 m thick) were examined. Facies include deeper lagoon dasyclad wackestone, oncoid wackestone, shoal-water skeletal and radial ooid packstone-grainstone, restricted lagoon lime mudstone, tidal flat microbial and fenestral laminites. They are arranged in 1 to 3 m thick parasequences. Parasequences likely are precessional (roughly 20 k.y. given the accumulation rates). They are arranged in sets 8 to 15 m thick composed of 3 to 6 parasequences, and possibly 100 k.y. duration. Lower Tithonian sets are dominated by subtidal parasequences passing up into thin, more shallow water parasequences. Upper Tithonian parsequences commonly have radial ooid grainstones at the base, and less commonly in upper regressive parts. Upper Tithonian parasequence sets have well developed tidal flat facies in upper parts. Estimation of water depths using the fenestral/microbial carbonate as a sea-level datum, shows that the subtidal facies formed in water depths of less than 5 m, and had overlapping depth ranges, implying mosaic-like facies patterns. These shallow water depths support very small precessional sea level changes forming the parasequences, compatible with very warm greenhouse climate. The high Tithonian subsidence rates favored relatively complete preservation of precessional cycles with few missing beats ; this also required that any eccentricity signal was very small, otherwise many precessional beats would not have been deposited on the platform top. Emergence near the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary formed extensive sequence-bounding subaerial clayey and limestone breccia horizons interstratified with lowermost Cretaceous (Berriasian) cyclic carbonates. These Early Cretaceous emergence events were due to long term relative sea level fall, coupled with decreased subsidence rates. Thus the Late Tithonian appears to be a very warm greenhouse phase in the mid-Jurassic-Early Cretaceous cool mode. The Jurassic-Cretaceous sections of the Adriatic platform in Croatia may provide important paleoclimatic data for this time interval during which some of the world's major petroleum reservoirs were generated.

Facies stacking patterns; precessional cycles; Late Jurassic; Adriatic Platform; Croatia

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