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Chrysophyte cyst fossils were widely pyritized and preserved in black shales from the seventh member (Ch7 Mbr) of the Yanchang Formation in the Ordos Basin. The age, pyritization, and preservation model of these fossils have not been studied previously. In this study, the astronomical orbital cycles of the Ch7 Mbr were determined based on the gamma ray series of the Yan56 and Zhen 421 wells. An astronomical time scale (ATS) analysis revealed that the depositional duration of Ch7 Mbr was approximately 5 Ma. According to the 206Pb/238U radiometric dating of zircons using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (La-ICP-MS), the tuffs at the bottom of Ch7 Mbr were crystallized at 234 Ma, which served as a geological anchor. The ages of three submembers in Ch7 Mbr were estimated at 234.0–232.4 Ma, 232.4–230.8 Ma, and 230.8–229.1 Ma based on ATS analysis. In addition, chrysophyte cyst fossils were well preserved by pyritization in the Ch7 Mbr black shales. There were six types of microscopic morphologies with different pores, collars, and surface ornamentation under scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The age of the chrysophyte cyst fossils was at least 233.6 Ma in the Triassic Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE) based on the 405 kyr tuned ATS. Moreover, the paleoredox conditions in Ch7 Mbr were reconstructed, and a preservation model of chrysophyte cyst fossils was established based on geochemical analyses. Fossil pyritization was caused by bacterial sulfate reduction near the water-sediment interface under suboxic to anoxic environmental conditions. Pyritization was initiated on the walls of the chrysophyte cysts by the formation of microcrystalline pyrite. Because of the gradual pyritization of the chrysophyte cyst wall, the organic matter in the interior of the fossil was well preserved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyclostratigraphy is a widely applied geochronological method; however, so far no cyclostratigraphic framework for the Middle Jurassic in southern Germany exists. In order to construct an astronomically based timescale for the Lower Aalenian (lowermost Middle Jurassic), three new drill cores from the Swabian Alb of southern Germany were investigated. The cores are 200-250 m in length and comprise sediments of Hettangian to Bathonian age (~201-166 Ma). Cyclostratigraphic methods are applied to gamma ray downhole logging data to receive astronomically derived timespans. Our study focuses on intervals of the Lower Aalenian Stage, especially on the Opalinuston Formation, as it comprises the thickest and lithologically most continuous record present in the boreholes. Cyclostratigraphic results yield similar timespans of ~900 kyr in all three boreholes, with high sedimentation rates for the largely argillaceous sediments ranging from ~9.5-13.8 cm/kyr. Collectively, our results offer new insights into absolute durations and sedimentation rates during a hitherto largely unexplored time interval in southern Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To expand traditional cyclostratigraphic numerical methods beyond their common technical limitations and apply them to truly deep-time archives, we need to reflect on the development of new approaches to sedimentary archives that are not traditionally targeted for cyclostratigraphic analysis but that frequently occur in the impoverished deep-time record. Siliciclastic storm-dominated shelf environments are a good example of such records. Our case study focuses on the Middle to Upper Ordovician siliciclastic successions of the Armorican Massif (western France) that are well-studied examples in terms of sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy. In addition, these sections are protected geological heritage due to the extraordinary quality of the outcrops. We therefore tested the performance of non-destructive high-resolution (centimeter-scale) portable X-ray fluorescence and natural gamma-ray analyses on an outcrop to obtain major and trace element compositions. Despite the challenging outcrop conditions in the tidal beach zone, our geochemical analyses provide useful information regarding general lithology and several specific sedimentary features such as the detection of paleo-placers or the discrimination between different types of diagenetic concretions such as nodules. Secondly, these new high-resolution data are used to experiment with the application of commonly used numerical cyclostratigraphic techniques on this siliciclastic storm-dominated shelf environment, a non-traditional sedimentological setting for cyclostratigraphic analysis. In the parts of the section with a relatively homogeneous lithology, spectral power analyses and bandpass filtering hint towards a potential astronomical imprint of some sedimentary cycles, but this needs further confirmation in the absence of more robust independent age constraints.

High-resolution magnetic susceptibility and % CaCO3 records (5 to 10 cm sampling interval) are used to track astronomical cycles from a Lower Berriasian record from central Tunisia. Six hundred and twenty two samples were measured for magnetic susceptibility and carbonate content as paleoclimate proxies for the detection of potential Milankovitch cycles. Elemental data using X-Ray fluorescence analyses was acquired from 19 samples to prove the reliability of the MS signal on recording the past paleoclimatic changes. We performed multiple spectral analyses and statistical techniques on the magnetic susceptibility signal, such as Multi-taper Method, Evolutive Harmonic Analysis, Correlation Coefficient, Time-optimization, and Average Spectral Misfit to obtain an optimal astronomical model. The application of these spectral analysis techniques revealed a pervasive dominance of E405-kyr and e100-kyr cycles showing that the climate turnover across the early Berriasian—middle Berriasian seems to had been governed by the long and short orbital eccentricity cycles. The identification of Milankovitch cycles in the record also allowed to propose a floating astronomical timescale of the studied section, with ~4 long eccentricity cycles (E405) extracted, which points to a duration estimate of ~1.6 Myr with an average sediment accumulation rate (SAR, after compaction) of 2.77 cm/kyr. The inferred floating ATS was tuned to the La2004 astronomical solution. In addition, we applied the DYNOT and ρ1 methods for seal-level change modeling to reconstruct a local eustatic profile which matches the previously published local and global eustatic charts.

Cyclic strata exposed in the Inyo Mountains of eastern California contain a continuous 6 m.y. record of deep marine deposition that spans the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary. To better understand the geologic evolution of southwest Laurentia and the role of glacially driven eustasy in upper Paleozoic stratigraphy, we measured two detailed ~600 m composite stratigraphic sections of the Keeler Canyon Formation and collected a handheld spectral gamma ray log. Post-depositional deformation complicates field relationships, but 1:5000 scale mapping of faults and folds permits assembly of two continuous sections. Measured strata alternate at the 5-20 m scale between intervals of fine-grained laminated marlstone and intervals of mixed carbonate and siliciclastic turbidites and debrites. Based on facies characteristics and a prominent marker horizon, we reassign the Pennsylvanian-Permian age upper Salt Tram unit of the upper Keeler Canyon Formation to a new Estelle Member. We estimate sediment accumulation rates within the Keeler Canyon Formation using published conodont biostratigraphy and correlative U-Pb geochronology from Eastern Europe combined with spectral analysis and timescale optimization using the Astrochron R package. Evolutive harmonic analysis of gamma ray-derived element concentrations reveals prominent bundled periodicities that are consistent with both long and short eccentricity cycles. Average sediment accumulation rates calculated using the time scale optimization function of Astrochron suggest a gradual increase from 40-60 m/m.y. to ~120 m/m.y. during the late Pennsylvanian and then a minima of ~50 m/m.y. near the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary, which is followed by an increase to ~175 m/m.y. into the Early Permian. This trend in sediment accumulation rates and subsequent Permian contractile deformation are compatible with flexural subsidence in a SW-migrating foreland basin related to the southern part of the late Antler orogenic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the findings from analysis and modeling of a stratigraphic series of magnetic susceptibility (MS) data measured with a portable MS meter from the Permian Salagou Formation loessite (south-central France). The results reveal discernible Milankovitch-scale paleoclimatic variability throughout the Salagou Formation, recording astronomically forced climate change in deep-time loessite of eastern equatorial Pangea. Optimal sedimentation rates are estimated to have ranged between 9.4 cm/kyr (lower Salagou Formation) and 13 cm/kyr (mid-upper Salagou Formation). A persistent 10-m-thick cyclicity is present that likely represents orbital eccentricity-scale (∼100 kyr) variability through the middle to late Cisuralian (ca. 285—275 Ma). Subordinate, higher frequency cycles with thicknesses of ∼3.3–3.5 and ∼1.8 m appear to represent obliquity and precession-scale variability. If the driver of magnetic enhancement is pedogenic, then the ∼10 m thick cyclicity that is consistent over ∼1000 m of section may represent the thickness of loessite–paleosol couplets in the Salagou Formation. Laboratory rock magnetic data show generally low magnetic enhancement compared to analogous Eurasian Quaternary loess deposits. This is related to the predominance of hematite (substantially weaker signal than magnetite or maghemite) in the Salagou Formation which may be explained by different conditions of formation (e.g., syn depositional processes, more arid, and/or oxidizing climate conditions) than in present Eurasia and/or post depositional oxidation of magnetite and maghemite.

Abstract—The paper presents the results of paleomagnetic, rock magnetic, and cyclostratigraphic studies of continental red beds that compose the Permian-Triassic boundary interval of the Staroe Slukino section in the Vladimir Region, Russia. Based on the directions of the characteristic components of the natural remanent magnetization of the studied rocks in the sampled stratum, the intervals of normal and reversed polarity related to the regional magnetozones r2RnP, r3RnP, and N3P-T were identified. Within the r3RnP zone, there is an interval of anomalous paleomagnetic directions, which has similar characteristics to those identified earlier in the coeval intervals of the Nedubrovo, Zhukov Ravine, and Okskiy Siyezd sections. Revising the biostratigraphy allows us to assume that the two zones of anomalous paleomagnetic directions in the composite magnetic polarity scale of the upper Permian of the Russian Platform are a reflection of the same epoch of an anomalous geomagnetic field configuration. It is estimated by the cyclostratigraphic method that the studied 16 m interval of the Staroe Slukino section took 900 ± 20 thousand years to accumulate, which limits the duration of the geomagnetic field anomalous state near the Permian-Triassic boundary to ~110 thousand years. A new Permian-Triassic (~252 Ma) paleomagnetic pole of the East European Platform is calculated: plat = 36.3°; plong = 155.0°; dp/dm = 2.8°/4.8°. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sedimentary environment of the Upper Triassic in the southeastern Sichuan Basin is obviously controlled by Luzhou paleo-uplift (LPU). However, the influence of paleo-uplift on the sedimentary patterns of the initial stages of this period in the southeastern Sichuan Basin has not yet been clear, which has plagued oil and gas exploration and development. This study shows that there is a marine sedimentary sequence, which is considered to be the first member of Xujiahe Formation (T3X¹ ) in the southeastern Sichuan Basin. The development of LPU resulted in the sedimentary differences between the eastern and western Sichuan Basin recording T3X¹ and controlled the regional sedimentary pattern. The western part is dominated by marine sediments, but the eastern paleo-uplift area is dominated by continental sedimentation in the early stage of T3X¹, and it begins to transform into a marine sedimentary environment consistent with the whole basin in the late stage of the period recorded by the Xujiahe Formation. The evidences are as follows: (1) time series: based on the cyclostratigraphy analysis of Xindianzi section and Well D2, in the southeastern Sichuan Basin, the period of sedimentation of the Xujiahe Formation is about 5.9 Ma, which is basically consistent with the Qilixia section, eastern Sichuan basin, where the Xujiahe Formation is widely considered to be relatively complete; (2) distribution and evolution of palaeobiology: based on analysis of abundance evolution of major spore-pollen, many land plant fossils are preserved in the lower part of T3X¹, indicates the sedimentary environment of continental facies. In the upper part of T3X¹, the fossil of terrestrial plants decreased, while the fossil of marine and tidal environment appeared, this means that it was affected by the sea water in the late stages of T3X¹ ; (3) geochemistry: calculate the salinity of water from element indicates that the uplift area is continental sedimentary environment in the early stage of T3X¹, while the central and western areas of the basin are marine sedimentary environment. Until the late stage of T3X¹, the southeast of the basin gradually turns into marine sedimentary environment, consisting with the whole basin; (4) types of kerogen: type III kerogen representing continental facies was developed in the early stage of T3X¹ in the uplift area, and type II kerogen, representing marine facies, was developed in the late stage; while type II kerogen was developed in the central and western regions of the basin as a whole in T3X¹ . This study is of great significance for understanding of both stratigraphic division and sedimentary evolution providing theoretical support for the exploration and development of oil and gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rock magnetic cyclostratigraphy study was conducted on the Carboniferous Mauch Chunk Formation red beds at Pottsville, Pennsylvania to determine if Milankovitch climate forcing could be detected in these terrestrial, fluvial deposits with hematite as the predominant ferromagnetic mineral. Because fluvial deposits are not deposited continuously it would be important to determine if they could record Milankovitch-scale climate cycles. Furthermore, the hematite magnetic mineral particles in red beds are not always recognized as primary, depositional minerals, so it was unclear whether they could record Milankovitch climate cycles. This locality was chosen because a robust magnetostratigraphy had already been established for it thus giving an estimate of its sediment accumulation rate (SAR). Magnetic susceptibility was measured in the laboratory with a KLY-3s Kappabridge on samples collected every 0.5 m of section for 68 m of section. Magnetic susceptibility measurements were also made in the field using an SM-20 portable susceptibility meter. The time series that resulted were different but yielded very similar power spectra calculated by the multi-taper method (MTM). Significant spectral peaks isolated by robust red noise and harmonic f-tests yielded peaks identified to be short eccentricity (125 and 95 ka), obliquity (35 ka) and precession (21 and 17.5 ka) in the Carboniferous. Average spectral misfit (ASM) analysis of these peaks for both the Kappabridge and SM-20 time series gave the identical SAR of 5.69 cm/ka, somewhat slower than the ∼9 cm/ka average rate for >250 m of section estimated from magnetostratigraphy and biostratigraphic correlation throughout northeastern North America. Analysis of the low temperature magnetic susceptibility versus temperature curves for a 10 m stratigraphic interval of samples indicates that the ferromagnetic content of the bulk susceptibility appears to be driving the precession- and obliquity-scale bulk susceptibility variations. This observation suggests that climate change in the source area causes more or less erosion of ferromagnetic minerals that are then deposited into a background of paramagnetic clays or diamagnetic quartz sand in the depositional basin. Our study clearly shows that fluvial terrestrial sediments can record astronomically forced climate change. Our study also indicates that portable susceptibility measurements are a valid way of collecting reconnaissance rock magnetic time series to determine sampling intervals for more detailed studies.

The article focuses on the impact of the growing radiation and climate changes during the Ordovician magnetostratigraphy and cyclostratigraphy period.

Abstract Widespread marine anoxia triggered by the runoff and recycling of nutrients was a key phenomenon associated with the Frasnian–Famennian (FF) mass extinction. However, the relative importance of global‐scale processes versus local influences on site‐specific environmental change remains poorly understood. Here, nitrogen‐isotope (δ15N) trends are combined with organic‐biomarker, phosphorus, and Rock‐Eval data in FF sites from the USA (H‐32 core, Iowa), Poland (Kowala Quarry), and Belgium (Sinsin). Up‐to‐date cyclostratigraphic age models for all three sites allow the nature and timing of changes to be precisely compared across the globe. Negative δ15N excursions across the FF interval from the H‐32 core and Kowala correlate with geochemical evidence for euxinic, phosphorus‐rich, water columns, and possible cyanobacterial activity, suggestive of increased diazotrophic N fixation, potentially coupled with ammonium assimilation at the latter site. By contrast, previously studied sites from Western Canada and South China document enhanced water‐column denitrification around the onset of the Upper Kellwasser (UKW) Event, re‐emphasizing the geographical heterogeneity in environmental perturbations at that time. Moreover, environmental degradation began >100 kyr earlier in Poland, coeval with a major increase in bioavailable phosphorus supply, than in Iowa, where no such influx is recorded. These regional differences in both the timing and nature of marine perturbations during the FF interval likely resulted from the variable influx of terrigenous nutrients to different marine basins at that time, highlighting the importance of local processes such as terrestrial runoff in driving environmental degradation during times of climate cooling such as the UKW Event.

Site U1501 of International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 368 locates on a broad regional basement high in the northern margin of the South China Sea (SCS). This study refines the chronostratigraphy of the upper 160 m sedimentary succession from Hole U1501C using paleomagnetic measurements and cyclostratigraphic analysis on the Natural Gamma Radiation (NGR) data. Rock magnetic analysis displays that the magnetic signal of the sediments is mainly carried by single-domain (SD) and multi-domain (MD) magnetite. A total of 12 geomagnetic reversals are identified and correlated to the geomagnetic polarity time scale (GPTS) in Geologic Time Scale 2020 (GTS 2020), combining biostratigraphic data and planktonic foraminiferal oxygen records. The Milankovitch cycles of 405-kyr long orbital eccentricity, ∼100-kyr short orbital eccentricity, and obliquity cycles are identified in the NGR profile. A 15.54 Myr astronomical time scale is constructed by tuning the short eccentricity cycles filtered from the NGR profiles to the La2010 astronomical solution with the constraints of the magnetostratigraphic results, biostratigraphic age datum and planktonic foraminiferal oxygen records. This new high-resolution age model provides a new temporal constraint on the tectonic and paleoenvironmental evolution in the South China Sea.

Cyclostratigraphy is a popular method that promises much more precise dates than biostratigraphy or radioisotope dating. Originally, it was pioneered to date Pleistocene glacial/interglacial intervals, but its reach has been steadily extended back through the Cenozoic and into earlier eras using sedimentary cycles. Unfortunately, enthusiasm for its potential has blinded geologists to its problems. Six problems are addressed, revealing the influence of subjective factors not commonly noticed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lithostratigraphic characteristics of the iconic Blue Lias Formation of southern Britain are influenced by sedimentation rates and stratigraphic gaps. Evidence for regular sedimentary cycles is reassessed using logs of magnetic susceptibility from four sites as an inverse proxy for carbonate content. Standard spectral analysis, including allowing for false discovery rates, demonstrates several scales of regular cyclicity in depth. Bayesian probability spectra provide independent confirmation of at least one scale of regular cyclicity at all sites. The frequency ratios between the different scales of cyclicity are consistent with astronomical forcing of climate at the periods of the short eccentricity, obliquity and precession cycles. Using local tuned time scales, 62 ammonite biohorizons have minimum durations of 0.7 to 276 ka, with 94% of them <41 ka. The duration of the Hettangian Stage is ≥2.9 Ma according to data from the West Somerset and Devon/Dorset coasts individually, increasing to ≥3.7 Ma when combined with data from Glamorgan and Warwickshire. A composite time scale, constructed using the tuned time scales plus correlated biohorizon limits treated as time lines, allows for the integration of local stratigraphic gaps. This approach yields an improved duration for the Hettangian Stage of ≥4.1 Ma, a figure that is about twice that suggested in recent time scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The Triassic Dachstein platform limestone at Steinernes Meer, Salzburg, Austria, includes 611 m of limestone with 222 peritidal cycles overlain by 273 m of subtidal, non‐cyclic and weakly cyclic limestone. Cycle patterns include both shoaling and deepening upward, symmetrical, truncated, and couplets without a depth vector. Beds are laterally discontinuous, and cycle bounding surfaces are laterally variable in the studied strata. Of 558 subtidal and intertidal beds measured, 121 (21.7%) disappear laterally. An additional 73 beds (13.1%) show significant (>10%) lateral variations in thickness. Mean thickness variation is 49%. Both lateral variations and terminations appear to lack a spatial vector. Disappearances toward the inferred platform interior (west) total 10% of the beds. East, toward the platform margin, 11.6% of the beds disappear. Thickness changes occur in 6.5% of beds in each direction. The lack of lateral continuity of beds precludes a simple allocyclic forcing model and is consistent with a non‐eustatic component to stratification. Erosion of intertidal intervals is the process that can be most readily documented. Non‐uniform rates of production, transport and distribution of sediments, superposed on stratigraphic sequences driven by eustasy, probably also contributed to the complex cycle patterns recorded in the Dachstein. Such composites of autocyclic and extrabasinal factors should not be uncritically interpreted as exclusive records of orbital forcing. Lateral discontinuities and thickness variations would also produce inaccuracies in spectral analysis of thickness patterns, typically conducted in search of ‘Milankovich frequencies’, as well as in construction of Fischer plots to analyse long‐period oscillations in accommodation. Any section subjected to cycle analysis should be examined for lateral changes, to the extent permitted by the exposures, in order to produce the most complete (composite) section possible.

A cyclostratigraphic interpretation of peritidal to shallow-marine ramp deposits of the early Middle Triassic (Anisian) Opletnya Member exposed in outcrops along the Iskar River gorge, NW Bulgaria, is presented. Based on facies trends and bounding surfaces, depositional sequences of several orders can be identified. New biostratigraphic data provide a time frame of the studied succession with placement of the boundaries of the Anisian substages and show that the Aegean (early Anisian) substage lasted about 1.6 Myr. In the corresponding interval in the two studied sections, 80 elementary sequences are counted. Five elementary sequences compose a small-scale sequence. The prominent cyclic pattern of the Opletnya Member can thus be interpreted in terms of Milankovitch cyclicity: elementary sequences represent the precession (20-kyr) cycle and small-scale sequences the short eccentricity (100-kyr) cycle in the Milankovitch frequency band. Medium-scale sequences are defined based on lithology but only in two cases can be attributed to the long eccentricity cycle of 405 kyr. The transgressive-regressive facies trends within the sequences of all scales imply that they were controlled by sea-level changes, and that these were in tune with the climate changes induced by the orbital cycles. However, the complexity of facies and sedimentary structures seen in the Opletnya Member also implies that additional factors such as lateral migration of sediment bodies across the ramp were active. In addition, three major sequence boundaries have been identified in the studied sections, which can be correlated with the boundaries Ol4, An1, and An2 of the Tethyan realm.

Abstract High-resolution studies of sedimentary sequences have reconstructed paleoceanographic changes in the Atlantic and southern and equatorial Pacific Oceans during the Late Miocene and Pliocene, but comparable analyses are lacking for the North Pacific Ocean. However, continuous samples of hemipelagic sequences covering this time interval were obtained at Integrated Ocean Drilling Program sites U1425 and U1430 in the Japan Sea during expedition 346. Because the paleoceanography of the Japan Sea was sensitive to glacio-eustatic sea-level changes, changes in the sediment record are manifested as cyclic lithological changes. By using a gamma ray attenuation (GRA) density, which reflects biogenic silica content, as an indicator of sea-level changes, we developed an independent orbitally tuned chronology at each site to construct high-resolution, high-precision age models for the time span of 11.8 to 1.45 Ma. First, the 405-kyr-filtered GRA profile at each site was tuned to 405-kyr-filtered orbital eccentricity. Then, using the 405-kyr-tuned age model, the 100-kyr-filtered GRA profile was tuned to short-eccentricity cycles to adjust the 405-kyr-tuned age models. We used the resulting age models to revise the time intervals of previously published lithological units and paleoceanographic stages for the Japan Sea. Our profiles based on physical properties are a good match to the oxygen isotope record, except for 6.6–3.6 Ma, a time interval with small-amplitude fluctuations in the oxygen isotope record.