Centennial to millennial variability of greenhouse climate across the mid-Cenomanian event

Abstract

Centennial- to millennial-scale climate variations are often attributed to solar forcing or internal climate system variability, but recognition of such variations in the deep-time paleoclimate record is extremely rare. We present an exceptionally well-preserved, millimeter-scale laminated marlstone from a succession of precession-driven limestone-marlstone couplets deposited in the Western Interior Seaway (North America) immediately preceding and during the Cretaceous mid-Cenomanian event (ca. 96.5 Ma). Sedimentological, geochemical, and micropaleontological data indicate that individual pairs of light-dark laminae record alternations in the extent of water-column mixing and oxygenation. Principal component analysis of X-ray fluorescence element counts and a grayscale scan of a continuous thin section through the marlstone reveal variations with 80–100 yr, 200–230 yr, 350–500 yr, ∼1650 yr, and 4843 yr periodicities. A substantial fraction of the data indicates an anoxic bottom water variation with a pronounced 10,784 yr cycle. The centennial to millennial variations are reminiscent of those found in Holocene total solar irradiance variability, and the 10,784 yr anoxia cycle may be a manifestation of semi-precession-influenced Tethyan oxygen minimum zone waters entering the seaway.

Description
Advisor
Degree
Type
Journal article
Keywords
Citation

Ma, Chao, Hinnov, Linda A., Eldrett, James S., et al.. "Centennial to millennial variability of greenhouse climate across the mid-Cenomanian event." Geology, 50, no. 2 (2021) The Geological Society of America: 227-231. https://doi.org/10.1130/G48734.1.

Has part(s)
Forms part of
Rights
This paper is published under the terms of the CC-BY license.
Citable link to this page