Marine and terrestrial sedimentation across the T–J transition in the North German Basin

Abstract

The global Mesozoic sea-level rise contributed to the stepwise flooding of the Central European Basin (CEB) across the T-J transition and transformed the CEB from a late Triassic inland playa to an early Jurassic semi-enclosed inland sea. The calibration of sections from North Germany and Thuringia using high-resolution palynomorph and ammonite biostratigraphy contributes to the improved temporal and spatial resolution of this decisive period. The herein proposed Deltoidospora-Concavisporites (DC) Zone, placed between the Rhaetian Ricciisporites-Polypodiisporites (RP) Zone and the Hettangian Pinuspollenites-Trachysporites Zone, marks the transitional zone of overlapping Rhaetian and Hettangian palynomorphs in brackish-marine, brackish and terrestrial environments of the North German Basin (NGB). Thus, the DC Zone enables the identification of the T-J transition in the NGB. Following a short-term ingression in the late Norian Corollina-Porcellispora Subzone, the first Rhaetian transgression contributed to substantial marine-terrestrial facies shifts. The diachronous transgressive onlap of brackish-marine strata culminated in a first Rhaetian maximum flooding in the upper Corollina-Enzonalasporites Zone to lower Rhaetipollis-Limbosporites (RL) Zone. After a regressive maximum in the middle RL Zone, the next transgression culminated in a second Rhaetian maximum flooding in the upper RL Zone. Following the end-Triassic regression, herein assigned to the upper RP Zone, the diachronous transgressive onlap of marine shales marks the change to marine Jurassic environments. The herein proposed Deltoidospora-Concavisporites (DC) Zone, placed between the Rhaetian Ricciisporites-Polypodiisporites (RP) Zone and the Hettangian Pinuspollenites-Trachysporites Zone, marks the transitional zone of overlapping Rhaetian and Hettangian palynomorphs in brackish-marine, brackish and terrestrial environments of the North German Basin (NGB). Thus, the DC Zone enables the identification of the T-J transition in the NGB. At the western gate of the CEB, the onset of marine Hettangian strata with ammonites, dated as the P. erugatum Biohorizon at St. Audrie's Bay, postdates the base Hettangian GSSP by ~250kyr. From there to Thuringia, the diachronous onlap of marine Hettangian strata with ammonites, herein dated as the P. plicatulum Biohorizon, took place over ~100kyr. The first Jurassic maximum flooding is dated as the interval of the P. psilonotum to P. plicatulum Biohorizons (lower Planorbis Zone). Rhaetian–Hettangian 3rd-order sequences of the CEB correlate with contemporaneous sequences described from Tethyan and peri-Tethyan basins pointing to circum-Tethyan eustatic cycles. The 4th-order sequences are evident in the Rhaetian-Hettangian, but only a set of Rhaetian 4th-order sequences can be correlated in the NGB so far.