Stable Isotopes, Ir Anomaly and Other Elemental Markers Near the Palaeocene - Eocene Transition: Evidence from the Western Tethys

Abstract

The geological history of the Earth is characterized by several global events recording dramatic climatic, oceanographic and biotic changes. One of them is a short-term Palaeocene-Eocene (P/E) deep sea benthic foraminiferal extinction event (BEE), also marked by distinct negative 813C and 81So anomalies, recorded in several marine and terrestrial sections all over the world (see Corfield, 1994; Koch et al., 1995; Stott at al., 1996 and references therein), as well as geochemical and sediment compositional changes (Lu et al., 1996; Schmitz et al., 1997). In this study we present preliminary results of complex stable isotope and geochemical investigations of the P/E boundary interval in the flysch sequence from the western Tethys (Gorika Brda section, Slovenia), and discuss their implications in a view of better understanding of the nature and the causes of the of the global changes across the P/E transition in this part of the Tethys.