Organic carbon and total sulfur content and concentrations of selected molecular fossils for C/T black shales (Table 1)

DOI

During mid-Cretaceous times large amounts of organic carbon (Corg) became sequestered in 'black shales', possibly due to 'oceanic anoxic events' characterized by the development of an extended oxygen minimum zone (OMZ). Here, we provide the first direct evidence for an open ocean OMZ in the Cenomanian/Turonian (C/T) southern North Atlantic and in fact show that the base of the photic zone was euxinic as revealed by molecular fossils from photosynthetic green sulfur bacteria in C/T black shales. This, together with evidence for bottom water anoxia and accumulation of redox-sensitive trace metals and hydrogen-rich organic matter, indicates a continuously euxinic water column. Concurrent with the high Corg accumulation rates, which are 15-150 times greater in the southern than in the northern North Atlantic, and the low biological productivity, this suggests that preservation controlled the accumulation of Corg in C/T black shales.

Supplement to: Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S; Köster, Jürgen (1998): A euxinic southern North Atlantic Ocean during the Cenomanian/Turonian oceanic anoxic event. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 158(3-4), 165-173

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.721057
Related Identifier IsSupplementTo https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(98)00052-1
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.721057
Provenance
Creator Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S ORCID logo; Köster, Jürgen
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 1998
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Supplementary Dataset; Dataset
Format text/tab-separated-values
Size 183 data points
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (-70.028W, 9.454S, -12.182E, 48.911N); North Atlantic/HILL; North Atlantic/CONT RISE; North Atlantic/BASIN; North Atlantic/ESCARPMENT; North Atlantic Ocean
Temporal Coverage Begin 1970-05-13T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 1985-06-10T14:30:00Z