Towards an understanding of the carbon isotopic changes across the Toarcian oceanic anoxic event

A combination of bulk carbon, biomarker and compound specific isotopic analyses were used in order to investigate the changes which accompanied the deposition of black shales during the upper tenuicostatum and lower falciferum zones of the Toarcian (early Jurassic, 183 Ma) ocean anoxic event (OAE). In this study, we reveal that apparent negative isotopic excursions in bulk organic and carbonate carbon were the result of compositional changes of organic matter and diagenesis, respectively. Organic petrology and Rock-Eval pyrolysis of organic matter from the Jet Rock, Hawsker Bottoms, Yorkshire, England, show that the upper tenuicostatum zone contains very large amounts of terrigenous debris. A careful review of the carbonate carbon record, as reported in the literature, indicates that a large negative isotopic excursion in bulk carbonate is likely the result of diagenesis, rather than reflective of seawater isotopic conditions. Biomarker distributions and isotopic composition of primary production biomarkers show little variation during the largest changes in the bulk records. Biomarker source indicators vary little throughout the section, indicating little change in biota or redox structure of the water column during this widespread deposition of black shales. Isotopic compositions of algal short chain n-alkanes, pristane and phytane also remain steady across the section.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Cohen, Alison Margaret

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Daniel H. Rothman and Roger E. Summons.

• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33942

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33942