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Journal ArticleDOI

Chronology of fluctuating sea levels since the triassic.

06 Mar 1987-Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science)-Vol. 235, Iss: 4793, pp 1156-1167
TL;DR: An effort has been made to develop a realistic and accurate time scale and widely applicablechronostratigraphy and to integrate depositional sequences documented in public domain outcrop sections from various basins with this chronostratigraphic framework.
Abstract: Advances in sequence stratigraphy and the development of depositional models have helped explain the origin of genetically related sedimentary packages during sea level cycles. These concepts have provided the basis for the recognition of sea level events in subsurface data and in outcrops of marine sediments around the world. Knowledge of these events has led to a new generation of Mesozoic and Cenozoic global cycle charts that chronicle the history of sea level fluctuations during the past 250 million years in greater detail than was possible from seismic-stratigraphic data alone. An effort has been made to develop a realistic and accurate time scale and widely applicable chronostratigraphy and to integrate depositional sequences documented in public domain outcrop sections from various basins with this chronostratigraphic framework. A description of this approach and an account of the results, illustrated by sea level cycle charts of the Cenozoic, Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic intervals, are presented.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, data from 280 rivers discharging to the ocean indicates that sediment loads/yields are a log-linear function of basin area and maximum elevation of the river basin.
Abstract: Analysis of data from 280 rivers discharging to the ocean indicates that sediment loads/yields are a log-linear function of basin area and maximum elevation of the river basin. Other factors controlling sediment discharge (e.g., climate, runoff) appear to have secondary importance. A notable exception is the influence of human activity, climate, and geology on the rivers draining southern Asia and Oceania. Sediment fluxes from small mountainous rivers, many of which discharge directly onto active margins (e.g., western South and North America and most high-standing oceanic islands), have been greatly underestimated in previous global sediment budgets, perhaps by as much as a factor of three. In contrast, sediment fluxes to the ocean from large rivers (nearly all of which discharge onto passive margins or marginal seas) have been overestimated, as some of the sediment load is subaerially sequestered in subsiding deltas. Before the proliferation of dam construction in the latter half of this century, rivers...

3,227 citations


Cites background from "Chronology of fluctuating sea level..."

  • ...If sediment discharged from small mountainous rivers can by-pass active margins during high stands of sea level, then standard models of sequence stratigraphy, which have been so successful in determining the position of eustatic sea level in older sedimentary deposits (e.g., Haq et al. 1987 ), may have less application off active margins....

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  • ...…rivers can by-pass active margins during high stands of sea level, then standard models of sequence stratigraphy, which have been so successful in determining the position of eustatic sea level in older sedimentary deposits (e.g., Haq et al. 1987), may have less application off active margins....

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Journal ArticleDOI
25 Nov 2005-Science
TL;DR: Long-term sea level peaked at 100 ± 50 meters during the Cretaceous, implying that ocean-crust production rates were much lower than previously inferred, and presents a new sea-level record for the past 100 million years.
Abstract: We review Phanerozoic sea-level changes [543 million years ago (Ma) to the present] on various time scales and present a new sea-level record for the past 100 million years (My). Long-term sea level peaked at 100 ± 50 meters during the Cretaceous, implying that ocean-crust production rates were much lower than previously inferred. Sea level mirrors oxygen isotope variations, reflecting ice-volume change on the 10 4 - to 10 6 -year scale, but a link between oxygen isotope and sea level on the 10 7 -year scale must be due to temperature changes that we attribute to tectonically controlled carbon dioxide variations. Sea-level change has influenced phytoplankton evolution, ocean chemistry, and the loci of carbonate, organic carbon, and siliciclastic sediment burial. Over the past 100 My, sea-level changes reflect global climate evolution from a time of ephemeral Antarctic ice sheets (100 to 33 Ma), through a time of large ice sheets primarily in Antarctica (33 to 2.5 Ma), to a world with large Antarctic and large, variable Northern Hemisphere ice sheets (2.5 Ma to the present).

2,740 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a model for the Cenozoic development of the region of SE Asia and the SW Pacific is presented and its implications are discussed, accompanied by computer animations in a variety of formats.

2,272 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented a state-of-the-art biochronostratigraphic record of depositional sequences in European basins for the Mesozoic and Cenozoic.
Abstract: Under the auspices of the "Mesozoic-Cenozoic Sequence Stratigraphy of European Basins" project (MCSSEB) an attempt was' made to construct a state-of-the-art biochronostratigraphic record of depositional sequences in European basins for the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. A wellcalibrated regional biochronostratigraphic framework is seen as an essential step towards an eventual demonstration of synchroneity of sequences in basins with different tectonic histories. The Mesozoic sequence stratigraphic and biostratigraphic records for the project (MCSSEB) are calibrated to the Gradstein et al. (1994) temporal scale. The Cenozoic record is calibrated to the Berggren et al. (1995) scale. The primary calibration in the Mesozoic between temporal and standard stratigraphy is based on ammonite biostratigraphy. This calibration was facilitated by h integration of the composite ammonite zonation of the "Sequence Stratigraphy of European Basins" project with the standard stratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy and radiometric data for the Triassic through lower Cretaceous intervals in the Gradstein et al. (1994) time scales. The Triassic through lower Cretaceous composite ammonite zonation in Gradstein et al. (1994) includes the highest resolution, zonal or subzonal, ammonite subdivisions available from tethyan as well as boreal areas in Europe. For the upper Cretaceous, Gradstein et al. (1994) calibrated their temporal scale with the Cobban et al. (1994) ammonite record from the Western Interior Basin in the United States, which is well correlated with 40Ar/39Ar dates from bentonites incorporated in the Obradovich (1993) and Gradstein et al. (1994) time scales. Calibration of the upper Cretaceous Western Interior Basin ammonite record with the European succession is relatively well understood for the Cenomanian through Santonian Stages but largely unresolved for the Campanian and Maastrichtian Stages. An incomplete ammonite record in the type areas in Europe and the lack of calibration between zonations of "cosmopolitan" fossil groups such as planktonic foraminifera, calcareous nannofossils and endemic ammonites in North America as well as Europe prevent adequate correlation. Calibration in the Cenozoic between temporal and standard stratigraphy is based on an integrated framework of magnetostratigraphy, planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils and selected radiometric ages. Subsequent calibration of sequences, strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr), oxygen isotope events, and additional fossil groups from oceanic, near shore and non-marine environments, was carried out by a large number of coordinators and contributors. INTRODUCTION was reviewed at workshops in Paris in May and December 1991 ~h~ chronostratigraphic charts presented in this paper are the and a preliminary biochronostratigraphic framework calibrated result of an initiative by Peter Vail and Thieny Jacquin in 1990 to the Haq et al. (1987) time scale was resented at the ~ i j o n to analyze and document depositional sequences in E~~~~~~~ Conference in 1992. After completion of the Gradstein et al. basins and to record their stratigraphic position relative to a (1994) Mesozoic time scale and the ~ e r ~ ~ r e n et al. (1995) Cestate-of-the-art temporal framework accurately calibrated to a ~ O Z O ~ C time scale, all biostratigraphic, isotope stratigraphic and biostratigraphic framework. ~h~ ~ ~ M e s o z o ~ c ~ e n o z o ~ c sesequence stratigraphic entries were recalibrated to the new time quence Stratigraphy of European Basins" project started officially with a meeting in ~ i j o n France organized by Jacquin, de Gracianskv, and Vail. in Mav 1992. Secluence interpretations SEISMIC STRATIGRAPHYISEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY for a large number of European basins were presented at poster Mitchum et al. (1977) described the depositional sequence sessions in Dijon. Papers in this volume, many of them based as a basic unit for stratigraphic analysis with chronostration the Dijon posters, form an integral part of the sequence documentation for the chronostratigraphic charts. Work on the detailed chronostratigraphic charts for the Mesozoic and Cenozoic began eighteen months before the Dijon Meeting, in December 1990 in Paris with a planning meeting attended by a large number of specialists in a wide range of biostratigraphic disciplines from several European countries. At the Paris meeting, all specialists present were invited to participate in the calibration of fossil groups representing non-marine, shallowand deep-water depositional environments to a revised temporal framework. Invitations were extended to specialists not present at the Paris meeting to complement the expertise in fossil groups essential to the construction of a stratigraphic framework and to the calibration of sequences. Progress graphic significance. They defined the depositional sequence as follows: "A depositional sequence is a stratigraphic unit composed of a relatively conformable succession of genetically related strata and bounded at its top and base by unconformities or their correlative conformities." This definition adds the concept of the "correlative conformity" to the unconformitybounded sequence in the sense of Sloss (1963). Adding the "correlative conformity" to the sequence definition is essential to allow application of sequence stratigraphy in areas of continuous deposition. Even though Mitchum et al. (1977) discussed the chronostratigraphic significance of their sequence, they defined the sequence as a lithologic unit ("A depositional sequence is determined by a single objective criterion, the physical relations of the strata themselves)." They stopped, s Mesozoic and Cenozoic Sequence Stratigraphy of European Basins, SEPM Special Publication N.o. 60 Copyright

1,507 citations


Cites background or methods from "Chronology of fluctuating sea level..."

  • ...Higher frequency (31~-order) sequences of Mitchum and Vail (1977), Haq et al. (1987, 1988) are shaped primarily by the interaction of sea-level changes with sediment supply, against the backdrop of basin subsidence....

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  • ...Haq et al. (1987) placed shifts in coastal onlap and changes in sea level in three categories of relative magnitude: major, medium and minor (determined from seismic and outcrop records)....

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  • ...MESOZOIC-CENOZOIC CHRONOSTRAT1GRARJ;IK CHARTS Temporal Framework Developments in geochronology since the publication of the Haq et al. (1987) Mesozoic-Cenozoic time scale, such as new 40Ar/39Ar dates for the upper Cretaceous of the North American Western Interior Seaway (Obradovich 1993) and the…...

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  • ...To facilitate the calibration of sequences to the temporal framework, Haq et al. (1987) focused on extensively studied and biostratigraihically documented stage type and reference sections in Europe....

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  • ...Haq et al. (1987) listed 119 sequences for the same interval....

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Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: An Astronomically Tuned Neogene Time Scale (ATNTS2012) is presented in this article, as an update of ATNTS2004 in GTS2004, and the numerical ages are identical or almost so.
Abstract: An Astronomically Tuned Neogene Time Scale (ATNTS2012) is presented, as an update of ATNTS2004 in GTS2004. The new scale is not fundamentally different from its predecessor and the numerical ages are identical or almost so. Astronomical tuning has in principle the potential of generating a stable Neogene time scale as a function of the accuracy of the La2004 astronomical solution used for both scales. Minor problems remain in the tuning of the Lower Miocene. In GTS2012 we will summarize what has been modified or added since the publication of ATNTS2004 for incorporation in its successor, ATNTS2012. Mammal biostratigraphy and its chronology are elaborated, and the regional Neogene stages of the Paratethys and New Zealand are briefy discussed. To keep changes to ATNTS2004 transparent we maintain its subdivision into headings as much as possible.

1,479 citations

References
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Book
01 Jan 1982

4,055 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The concept of major rock-stratigraphic units of interregional scope was introduced in 1948 by Longwell, 1949 as discussed by the authors, and the sedimentary record of the North American craton from late Precambrian to present is characterized by six major unconformities.
Abstract: The concept of major rock-stratigraphic units of interregional scope was introduced in 1948 (Longwell, 1949). It is now possible to restate the concept and to define more explicitly the sequences delimited by interregional unconformities in the continental interior of North America. The sedimentary record of the North American craton from late Precambrian to present is characterized by six major unconformities. These interregional unconformities subdivide the cratonic stratigraphic column into six sequences—major rock-stratigraphic units (of higher than group, megagroup, or supergroup rank) which can be identified, where preserved, in all cratonic interior areas. At the cratonic margins the bounding unconformities tend to disappear in continuous successions, and the cratonic sequences are replaced by others controlled by events in the marginal basins and eugeosynclinal borders. Although the time values of the unconformities vary widely because of differences in degree of nondeposition and amount of erosion, the approximate dates of the regressional maxima represented are: (1) very late Precambrian, (2) early Middle Ordovician, (3) early Middle Devonian, (4) “post-Elvira” Mississippian, (5) early Middle Jurassic, and (6) late Paleocene. A seventh major regression is now in progress.

1,172 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that the geomagnetic anomalies are caused by a sequence of normally and reversely magnetized blocks that have been produced by sea floor spreading at the axes of the ridge in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans.
Abstract: This paper summarizes the results of the three previous papers in this series, which have shown the presence of a pattern of magnetic anomalies, bilaterally symmetric about the crest of the ridge in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. By assuming that the pattern is caused by a sequence of normally and reversely magnetized blocks that have been produced by sea floor spreading at the axes of the ridges, it is shown that the sequences of blocks correspond to the same geomagnetic time scale. An attempt is made to determine the absolute ages of this time scale using paleomagnetic and paleontological data. The pattern of opening of the oceans is discussed and the implications on continental drift are considered. This pattern is in good agreement with continental drift, in particular with the history of the break up of Gondwanaland.

958 citations