Strontium and carbon-isotope chronostratigraphy of Barremian–Aptian shoal-water carbonates: Northern Tethyan platform drowning predates OAE 1a

Abstract

A widely accepted hypothesis proposes that the Early Aptian demise of carbonate platforms in the northern Tethyan realm reflects the impact of environmental changes that eventually led to the deposition of organic-rich basinal sediments during oceanic anoxic event (OAE) 1a. In fact, the temporal correlation of oceanic anoxia and platform drowning has not been rigorously tested and evidence indicating causality is debated. The present paper provides a high-resolution carbon- and strontium-isotope chronostratigraphy combined with detailed sedimentological analysis applied to the Barremian–Aptian Urgonian carbonate platform development at the northern rim of the Tethys (Subalpine Chains, Haute-Savoie, ESE France). A characteristic Barremian–Aptian carbon- and strontium-isotope pattern below the onset of OAE 1a interval permits precise platform-to-basin correlation with the Barremian stratotype locality of Angles (SE France). This chemostratigraphic pattern equally allows for a correlation with well-studied shoal-water and pelagic records of the northern and central Tethys. Strontium-isotope stratigraphy provides a high-resolution numerical age-data set, indicating an earliest Aptian age (< 124.5 ± 0.4 Ma) of platform demise in the Subalpine Chains. The detailed platform-to-basin correlation obtained in France clearly illustrates that shoal-water carbonate production in the Urgonian platform ceased about 300 kyr before the most negative values of the characteristic negative carbon-isotope anomaly, which marks the beginning of OAE 1a black-shale deposition. The stratigraphic results confirm (i) the theory of an Early Aptian northern Tethyan platform drowning episode predating OAE 1a and (ii) document the temporal response of shoal-water carbonate platforms to the environmental perturbations prior to the OAE acme.