A 70 million year astronomical time scale for the deep-sea bedded chert sequence (Inuyama, Japan): Implications for Triassic–Jurassic geochronology

Abstract

The astronomical time scale (ATS) has provided high-resolution geochronology. However, the early Mesozoic ATS is still under construction partly due to the lack of continuous pelagic sequences of the early Mesozoic. Here we present ca. ∼70 Myr long ATS constructed from the early Mesozoic deep-sea bedded chert sequence exposed in the Inuyama area, central Japan. The sedimentary rhythms of bedded chert display a full range of climatic precession related cycles; ∼20-kyr cycle as a chert–shale couplet and ∼100-, 405-, 2000- to 4000-, and 10,000-kyr cycles as chert bed thickness variation. The newly established ATS (Inuyama-ATS) is tuned by 405-kyr eccentricity cycle and is anchored at the end-Triassic radiolarian extinction level as 201.4±0.2 Ma. This Inuyama-ATS gives ages consistent with the radiometric ages projected to the Inuyama deep-sea sequence using biostratigraphy and carbon isotope stratigraphy. The Inuyama-ATS provides the age constraints for the Triassic and Jurassic stage boundaries, which support the “Long-Norian” option of Muttoni et al. (2004). Because the deep-sea bedded chert sequence covers a long time interval before the Cretaceous, the ATS for the bedded chert will serve as a template for the astrochronology of Mesozoic and older ages.