Project Details
Projekt
Ocean-continent interactions in the mid Cretaceous Equatorial Atlantic realm
Applicants
Dr. Daniel Birgel; Professor Dr. Jochen Erbacher
Subject Area
Palaeontology
Term
from 2007 to 2011
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 48963889
The project aims at deciphering terrestrial environmental dynamics and palaeoceanographic changes during the mid-Cretaceous super-greenhouse world based on the analysis of macerals, carbon and hydrogen isotope composition of plant-wax lipids and inorganic geochemical parameters via XRF scans in marine sediments. Our proposal shall try to answer paleoenvironmental key questions arising from these projects. We expect a straightforward correlation of data from the terrestrial and marine realms, thus yielding the opportunity to obtain a comprehensive view of global change during the investigated time slice. Analyses in varying resolution will be carried out across the upper Albian to lower Turanian interval to assess environmental and oceanographic change during the formation of various palaeoceanographic events. These events are the latest Albian Oceanic Anoxic Event Id (OAE Id), the Mid Cenomanian Event (MCE) and the Late Cenomanian OAE 2 all of which are representing major perturbations of the global carbon cycle. Investigations will be made along a stratigraphic splice of two sites from OOP Leg 207 (Demerara Rise) (Sites 1258 and 1260). Complementary analyses will be performed on selected intervals of DSDP Site 367 (Cape Verde Basin - Late Albian to Late Cenomanian) and 370 (off Morocco, Late Albian to (?) middle Cenomanian) from the eastern Atlantic in order to better estimate past large-scale hydrological-terrestrial changes in northern South America and NW Africa and their influence on the deposition of black shales in the tropical Atlantic. The project has been designed to achieve the following main goals: • Identification of runoff variations and thus terrestrial climate change during the Late Albian to early Turonian in general and during exceptional palaeoceanographic events (OAE Id, MCE and OAE 2) in particular. • Providing an estimate of terrestrial input into the marine realm at Demerara Rise during the latest Albian to early Turonian. • Testing the conceptual model of arid climates and saline bottom water formations in the tropical Atlantic during the late Cenomanian. • Providing linkages between marine palaeotemperature variations and terrestrial climate. • Estimation of changes in large-scale hydrology and its consequence for the accumulation of organic-rich sediments. • Testing the hypothesis of a significant /pCO2 drop connected to OAE formation.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
Participating Person
Dr. Andreas Lückge
