Chronostratigraphy of Campanian–Maastrichtian platform carbonates and rudist associations of Salento (Apulia,Italy)

Late Cretaceous platform carbonates from the Salento peninsula (south Italy) were studied by strontium-isotope stratigraphy to improve their chronostratigraphy. Forty-three samples from nine localities were collected and the numerical ages were derived from fifteen geochemically well-preserved samples of rudist shells that were analyzed for ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values. Strontium isotope stratigraphy yielded new ages for the base of the Ciolo Limestone. The oldest successions studied in Salento are 85.9 Ma (+/− 0.6) and assigned to the Melissano Limestone. The youngest Cretaceous limestones observed at the Ciolo Limestone type locality (Ciolo cove) are 66.4 Ma (+/− 1.5), and the base of this formation is older than 72.8 Ma (+/− 0.4). Karstic cavities observed at the Cava Cocumola in the mid-Campanian S. Cesarea Limestone are tentatively interpreted to be linked to an intra-Campanian event which is related to a sea-level lowstand inferred also on the island of Brač (Adriatic coast of Croatia) and in the Boreal realm at 75–77 Ma. A new large recumbent rudist similar to Sabinia and Pseudosabinia is observed in the Ciolo and S. Cesarea Limestone and appears to be characteristic of the Apulian platform carbonates. Rudist associations from the S. Cesarea Limestone and the overlying Ciolo Limestone are remarkably similar, although they range over a time interval of more than 12 Ma.     

Aptian-Albian coaliferous sediments of Kotel’nyi Island (New Siberian Islands): New data on the section structure and ignimbrite volcanism

The Aptian-Albian sediments of Kotel’nyi Island are represented by a terrigenous coaliferous complex with the apparent thickness of approximately 700 m. The upper two thirds of their section enclose ignimbrites and rhyolitic ash tuffs. The integral thickness of volcanics is 170 m. A new sequence composed largely of acidic volcanics and sedimentary rocks is defined in the upper part of the Cretaceous section. The K-Ar age estimated for ignimbrite glasses is 110–107 ± 2.5 Ma, which corresponds to the first half of the Albian. The fossil flora list is added by several previously unknown forms. The macroflora of Kotel’nyi Island is similar to its Albian counterpart from the Kolyma-Indigirka region and allows Cretaceous sediments from the lower part the Kotel’nyi Island section to be dated back to the Aptian (?)-Albian (except for the terminal Albian). The palynological characteristic of rocks immediately contacting the dated volcanics appeared to be untypical of Albian sediments of Siberia and similar to that of the Late Neocomian palynocomplexes. This is partly explained by erosion and reworking processes. The examined continental sediments accumulated in post-orogenic extension settings. They constitute the lower strata of the Aptian(?)-Tertiary post-orogenic complex filling riftogenic depressions in the New Siberian Islands and Laptev Sea.     

Radiolarians,foraminifers, and biostratigraphy of the Coniacian–Campanian deposits of the Alan-Kyr Section,Crimean Mountains

Data on the distribution of radiolarians and planktonic and benthic foraminifers are obtained for the first time from the Alan-Kyr Section (Coniacian–Campanian), in the central regions of the Crimean Mountains. Radiolarian biostrata, previously established from Ak-Kaya Mountain (central regions of the Crimean Mountains) were traced: Alievium praegallowayi–Crucella plana (upper Coniacian–lower Santonian), Alievium gallowayi–Crucella espartoensis (upper Santonian without the topmost part), and Dictyocephalus (Dictyocryphalus) (?) legumen–Spongosaturninus parvulus (upper part of the upper Santonian). Radiolarians from the Santonian–Campanian boundary beds of the Crimean Mountains are studied for the first time, and Prunobrachium sp. ex gr. crassum–Diacanthocapsa acanthica Beds (uppermost Santonian–lower Campanian) are recognized. Bolivinoides strigillatus Beds (upper Santonian) and Stensioeina pommerana–Anomalinoides (?) insignis Beds (upper part of the upper Santonian–lower part of the lower Campanian) are recognized. Eouvigerina aspera denticulocarinata Beds (middle and upper parts of the lower Campanian) and Angulogavelinella gracilis Beds (upper part of the upper Campanian are recognized on the basis of benthic foraminifers. These beds correspond to the synchronous biostrata of the East European Platform and Mangyshlak. Marginotruncana coronata-Concavatotruncana concavata Beds (Coniacian–upper Santonian), Globotruncanita elevata Beds (terminal Santonian), and Globotruncana arca Beds (lower Campanian) are recognized on the basis of planktonic foraminifers. Radiolarian and planktonic and benthic foraminiferal data agree with one another. The position of the Santonian–Campanian boundary in the Alan-Kyr Section, which is located stratigraphically above the levels of the latest occurrence of Concavatotruncana concavata and representatives of the genus Marginotruncana, is refined, i.e., at the level of the first appearance of Globotruncana arca. A gap in the Middle Campanian–lower part of the upper Campanian is established on the basis of planktonic and benthic foraminifers. The Santonian–Campanian beds of the Alan-Kyr Section, on the basis of planktonic foraminifers and radiolarians, positively correlate with synchronous beds of the Crimean-Caucasian region, and beyond. Benthic foraminifers suggest a connection with the basins of the East European Platform.     

Chondrichthyans from the Menuha Formation (Late Cretaceous: Santonian–Early Campanian) of the Makhtesh Ramon region,southern Israel

Exposures of the Menuha Formation (Santonian–Early Campanian, Mount Scopus Group) in the Makhtesh Ramon region of the southern Negev have produced numerous chondrichthyan teeth. The isolated teeth represent at least ten different species: Cretalamna appendiculata, Cretoxyrhina mantelli, Squalicorax falcatus?, S. kaupi, Scapanorhynchus rapax, S. raphiodon?, Carcharias samhammeri, Carcharias cf. C. holmdelensis?, and two other fish (Hadrodus priscus and a pycnodont). This assemblage has important implications for Late Cretaceous chondrichthyan palaeobiogeography. The majority of teeth were contained within a glauconite-rich, yellow-brown, soft chalk that included oysters (Pycnodonte vesicularis?), trace fossils (Planolites, Thalassinoides, and Chondrites), phosphatic peloids, and foraminiferans (globigerinids). The teeth were collected mainly through surface-sampling and sieving. The Menuha Formation probably represents a temperate to subtropical, shallow, open-shelf environment deposited during the formation of the Ramon anticline. Reworked conglomeratic chalks in the western section represent marginal facies derived from this structural uplift. With little to no published material describing the chondrichthyan fauna of the Menuha Formation, these data improve interpretations of its palaeoenvironment. Interpretation of the palaeoenvironment of the formation is important for understanding the larger stratigraphic/tectonic framework of the Ramon monocline region of southern Israel.     

Comparative analysis of megaflood deposits and alluvium of the Chuya and Katun’ river valleys (Gorny Altai)

Sedimentary indicators of catastrophic glacial megafloods—plane-bedded angular gravel, cobbles, and boulders—are described in several sections of the high terraces of the Chuya River valley. The principal difference of these sediments from typical alluvium of this area is demonstrated. The clast roundness, grain size of clasts, and sedimentary structures of the high-terrace deposits of the Chuya and Katun’ valleys indicate the same facies originated through megaflood deposition. These results are at odds with ideas of alluvial, glacial, or glaciofluvial genesis of the high-terrace deposits of the Chuya River.     

New data on the age and nature of the Khan–Bogd alkaline granites,Mongolia

New age dating (291 Ma) was obtained for one of the largest alkaline granite massifs in the world, the Khan–Bogd Massif (Mongolia). For the first time, apart from zircon, other zirconium silicates, elpidite and armstrongite, have been analyzed. Our determinations showed the highly depleted nature of the mantle sources of granites with ε_Nd = 12. All the studied Zr-silicates demonstrate positive Eu anomalies in the REE patterns, which indicate a low oxidation potential during alkaline granite formation.     

Chemical and tectonic controls on the formation of sparry magnesite deposits — the deposits of the northern Greywacke Zone (Austria)

The sparry magnesite deposits of the northern Greywacke Zone are situated at the base of thrust sheets. Model calculations and natural examples suggest that an inverse temperature gradient can only be established at the base of a thrust sheet if thrusting is so rapid as to be geologically unrealistic. Independently of this thrusting induces a fluid flow from the lower units to the front of the moving thrust sheet. Stability data of magnesite and dolomite in contact with fluids with different Ca/(Ca+Mg) ratios suggest that this tectonically induced fluid flow produce magnesite from preexisting dolomite by metasomatism.

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Zusammenfassung Die Spatmagnesitvorkommen der Nördlichen Grauwackenzone liegen innerhalb von Deckengrenzen. Modellberechnungen zeigen, daß ein inverser Temperaturgradient sich nur dann an der Basis von Decken einstellen kann, wenn die Überschiebungsgeschwindigkeit so groß wird, daß sie geologisch unglaubwürdig ist. Deckenüberschiebungen erzeugen aber in jedem Fall in der überschobenen Einheit einen zur Deckenfront hin gerichteten Fluidstrom. Eine Betrachtung der Stabilitätsdaten für Magnesit und Dolomit im Gleichgewicht mit einer fluiden Phase mit unterschiedlichen Ca/(Ca+Mg)-Verhältnissen zeigt, daß durch einen solchen Fluidstrom metasomatisch Magnesit aus Dolomit gebildet werden kann.

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Résumé Les dépôts de magnésite spathique de la Grauwacken Zone septentrionale sont situés à la base d'unités charriées. Un calcul de modélisation et des exemples naturels montrent qu'un gradient inverse de température ne peut s'établir à la base d'une unité charriée qu'à la condition d'admettre une vitesse de charriage tellement élevée qu'elle est irréaliste. D'autre part, le phénomene de charriage induit un déplacement de fluide depuis les unités inférieures vers le front de la nappe. Les données relatives aux conditions de stabilité de la magnésite et de la dolomite en présence de fluides de divers rapports Ca/Ca+Mg permettent de déduire que le flux ainsi engendré par la tectonique peut engendrer la magnésite par métasomatose à partir de dolomite préexistante.

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New data on the geochemistry and mechanism of formation of quartzites of the Bural-Sar’dag deposit (Eastern Sayan Mountains)

Doklady Earth Sciences -     

Stratigraphy and ecostratigraphic distribution of foraminiferal morphogroups from the Upper Jurassic of the Makar’yev section (Unzha River,Volga River basin)

Investigation of the Upper Callovian to Lower Kimmeridgian microfossils from the Makar’yev reference section (Unzha River, East European Platform) has been carried out. The section is characterized by ammonite debris and abundant associations of benthic and planktic foraminifers. It is a perfect object for stratigraphic and paleoecological researches. The biostratigraphic distribution of foraminifers from the Makar’yev section allows one to identify standard foraminifera zones of the East European Platform, as well as to upgrade some of them. The analysis of vertical and lateral ammonites and foraminiferal distribution, completed with litho stratigraphy, has precised the stratigraphic volume and position of boundaries of several lithological units.An improved stratigraphic scheme for the Kostroma area of the Moscow Depression is proposed. Analysis of the composition, structure, and dynamic changes of the foraminiferal assemblages has been performed. The morphofunctional analysis of foraminiferal genera has for the first time identified how foraminiferal morphogroups differing in their life style and feeding strategy varied with short-term paleoenvironmental changes. These morphogroup changes allow establishing four ecostratigraphic levels. These paleoecological data have been calibrated along with geochemical factors. They have shown a crisis of foraminiferal association during the Late Oxfordian and Early Kimmeridgian. A similar crisis has also been discovered in the north of Siberia, which may be an argument for its global distribution. The analysis of the taxonomic composition and the density of foraminiferal associations, in parallel with the structure of the association, has revealed a succession of transgressive and regressive events during the Late Callovian-Early Kimmeridgian. It allows the typification of each assemblage in relation with each event and underlines the occurrence of second-order sea-level fluctuations (middle part of the Middle Oxfordian and the earliest Kimmeridgian).     

Lithological–geochemical,petromagnetic, and paleoecological characteristics of the Campanian–Selandian sedimentation conditions in the Ul’yanovsk–Saratov basin

The results of a complex study of the Upper Cretaceous carbonate section in the quarry of the cement plant of the town of Sengilei (Ul’yanovsk district) are presented. The Lower Paleocene cyclic opoka member is described. The formation conditions of the Upper Cretaceous cyclic and cryptocyclic, as well as Lower Paleocene cyclic, rocks are interpreted for the first time on the basis of lithological, petrographic, petromagnetic, geochemical, and paleoecological methods. The cyclicity was formed due to dilution cycles under climate fluctuation and eustatic variations, which were caused by eccentricity cycles of the Earth’s orbit. These cycles are identified in the cryptorhythmic lanceolata sequence of the Lower Maastrichtian rocks.     

Neotectonics and morphotectonics of the southern Almería region (Betic Cordillera-Spain) kinematic implications

Most previous studies related to the recent tectonic development of southeastern Betic Cordillera, and in particular the south of Almería, agree with the kinematic variety that can be observed in the post-Miocene structures at different scales. This variety is difficult to explain if we consider only the regional stress field related to the convergence of the Eurasian and African plates that remained relatively steady over the last 9 Ma. This work proposes a block tectonics with horizontal and vertical relative movements driven by strike-slip movements of major faults to explain the variety of kinematics observed in the area from Middle Miocene to present. The combined activity of the Alpujarras fault zone (dextral strike-slip) and the Carboneras fault zone (sinistral strike-slip) induces, within the major block bounded by them, the squeezing of minor pre-existing fault bounded crustal blocks. This process generates traction areas inside the escaping block, which are linked with the existence of gradients of westward movement rate. This tectonics can explain some of the structures related with the extensional tectonics predominant in the south of Almería province and the development of the minor and major morphostructures driven by faults with different kinematics. The tectonics of blocks proposed is useful to give a coherent interpretation of apparently incoherent local structural data into a regional and homogeneous compressional stress field.Sadly, Professor José L. Hernández Enrile died in April 2003, and thus this paper represents his last thoughts on the topic. Reviews were addressed by the first author; however, some of the suggested changes were discussed to preserve Professor Hernández Enriless thoughts.     

Carbon and oxygen isotopes in the Frasnian–Famennian section of the Kuznetsk basin (southern West Siberia)

The first detailed isotope-geochemical study of carbonate deposits has been performed in the Lower Famennian stratotype section of the northwestern Kuznetsk Basin (Kosoy Utyos), which was localized in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere in the Late Devonian. The δ¹³C_carb, δ¹³C_org, and δ¹⁸O variation curves were constructed for the section deposits. Geochemical and petrographic studies of carbonates allowed allocation of samples that underwent postsedimentation alteration and exclude them from further interpretation. Compared with coeval sections in the other world's regions, the Kosoy Utyos section is characterized by higher δ¹³C_carb values, up to 5.4‰, whereas the maximum value in subequatorial area sections is 4‰. The isotope shift amplitude of the studied section reaches 4.6‰, which is 1.5‰ higher than those in other regions. The δ¹⁸O values are 3‰ lower than the ones of the world's coeval sections. The results obtained show that δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O variation trends differ from those of coeval subequatorial sections. The high shift amplitude and maximum δ¹³C_carb values in the Kosoy Utyos section are due to the shallow-water carbonate sedimentation environments on the Siberian continental shelf and, probably, the lower temperatures of waters in the middle latitudes as compared with the subequatorial areas.     

New data on the structure and age of Jurassic-Lower cretaceous sequences of the Algan terrane (Pereval’naya River Area, Koryak Highland, Chukotka)

The analysis of radiolarian assemblages and lithological types of siliceous rocks yielded new data on the structure of different sequences constituting the northern Algan terrane in the Pereval’naya River basin. Three tectonic slices formed by different lithothectonic complexes can be defined in this area. The radiolarian assemblages from the volcanogenic-siliceous slice allow the oceanic section to be dated back to the Kimmeridgian-Valanginian. The tuffaceous-terrigenous slice contains cherts of two types: (1) formed in situ and (2) reworked. The reworked deep-sea cherts yielded Bathonian-Kimmerdgian and Bathonian-Oxfordian radiolarians, while late Aalenian-late Bathonian radiolarian assemblages were extracted from the Kimmerdgian-Tithonian matrix of siliceous rocks.     

New evidence for reorientation of the Razdol’naya River flow in the Pleistocene (southern Primor’e region)

Taking into consideration additional data indicating the reorientation of the Razdol’naya River flow in the Pleistocene, a new model of its capture is proposed. The latter is based on the principle of the more aggressive behavior of rivers draining the eastern megaslope of the Sikhote Alin mountainous system, including the river that captured the Razdol’naya River flow.     

New data on the composition and age of the Ust’-Emuneret flora from the Enmyvaam River basin (Central Chukotka)

The Ust’-Emuneret floristic assemblage from the Emuneret Formation developed in the Enmyvaam River basin (Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanogenic belt) is described. The age of flora-bearing deposits is debatable, being previously determined in the interval of the Cenomanian to Campanian. According to the new data, the assemblage includes 57 species of fossil plants with dominant angiosperms, subdominant conifers, and subordinate ferns, liverworts, ginkgoaleans, and czekanowskialeans. The Ust’-Emuneret flora is characterized by the presence of advanced forms among different plant groups, which occur in Santonian-Campanian and younger floras of northeastern Russia, and by the presence of relict ginkgoaleans and czekanowskialeans. The flora is compared with other floras from neighboring regions, which provides grounds for the inference on its most probable Late Santonian age (probably, including the Early Santonian and initial Campanian).     

New data on the magnetostratigraphy of the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary interval,Nordvik Peninsula (northern East Siberia)

The results of this study were used to identify a reversed polarity magnetozone, referred to as M17r, in Berriasian sections of the Nordvik Peninsula (northern East Siberia) within the normal polarity magnetozone (M18n) from previous studies. The new magnetozone embraces the Volgian–Ryazanian boundary (Chetaites chetae/C. sibiricus zonal boundary). It was also found that the former magnetozone M17r at Nordvik, which includes the C. sibiricus/Hectoroceras kochi zonal boundary should correspond to magnetozone M16r. Using magnetostratigraphic and biostratigraphic criteria proves that the Boreal C. sibiricus Zone is correlated with at least the major part of the Tethyan Tirnovella occitanica Zone, and the Boreal H. kochi Zone is correlated with the lower part of the Malbosiceras paramimounum Subzone of the Tethyan Fauriella boissieri Zone.     

New data on detrital zircons from the sandstones of the lower Cambrian Brusov Formation (White Sea region,East-European Craton): unravelling the timing of the onset of the Arctida–Baltica collision

The basement of the northeastern periphery of the East-European Craton (ЕЕС) is composed of volcanic-sedimentary sequences, volcanic rocks, granitoids, and rare ophiolite complexes. Geochronological data constrain their age from ca. 750 to 500 Ma, and there is a consensus that these rocks represent relicts of a late Neoproterozoic–Cambrian Pre-Uralides–Timanides orogeny. Combining new integrated isotopic (U-Pb, Lu-Hf) and trace-element data (TerraneChrone^® approach) on detrital zircons from sandstones of the lower Cambrian Brusov Formation in the Mezen basin (White Sea region in the northeastern periphery of the EEC) with available studies on detrital zircons from Neoproterozoic–middle Cambrian (meta)sedimentary units of the northeastern periphery of the EEC allow us to conclude that (1) the onset of the Arctida–Baltica collision can now be constrained to the time interval between ca. 540 and 510 Ma and (2) the Ediacaran–early Cambrian Mezen sedimentary basin was a basin on the Timanian passive margin of Baltica up to 540 Ma, but was not a foreland basin of the Pre-Uralides–Timanides orogen.