Stratigraphy Commons^™

Lithological And Geochemical Responses To Abrupt Global And Regional Paleoenvironmental Changes During The Aptian In A Hemipelagic Setting Of The Eastern Iberian Peninsula: A Multi-Proxy Approach, Jander Socorro

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intense episodes of environmental perturbations and regionally to globally distributed, oxygen-deprived marine facies characterize the Cretaceous sedimentary record. The Organyà Basin in the Spanish Pyrenees chronicles this period in expanded stratigraphic sequences that enabled high-resolution sampling and detailed analysis of disturbances poorly recorded in more lithologically condensed sections. Here, I present an integrated multi-proxy study aimed at understanding the Basin’s response to changing paleoenvironmental conditions during the early Aptian stage of the Cretaceous.

Results from the El Pui section indicate that large-scale (> 1‰), negative carbon isotope excursions (CIEs) that show no corresponding shifts in local sources of organic matter …

Organic Chemostratigraphic Markers Characteristic Of The (Informally Designated) Anthropocene Epoch, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Recognizing the tremendous collective impact of humans on the environment in the industrial age, the proposed designation of the current time period as the Anthropocene Epoch has considerable merit. One of the signature activities during this time continues to be the intensive extraction, processing, and combustion of fossil fuels. While fossil fuels themselves are naturally-occurring, they are most often millions of years old and associated with deeply buried strata. They may be found at the surface, for example, as natural oil seeps or coal seam outcrops, but these are relatively rare occurrences. Fossil fuels and their myriad by-products become the …

Organic Geochemical Analysis Of Late-Glacial And Early-Holocene Ecosystem Changes: A Case Study From Northern New England Lakes, Michael A. Kruge, Andrea Lini

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The lacustrine sedimentary archive of organic remains provides important evidence for the reconstruction of the environmental histories of lakes and their watersheds, recording the response of the Earth's biota to changes on scales varying from the local to the global. The last Glacial-Interglacial transition presents an opportunity to investigate how, and at what rates, watershed and lake ecosystems were established on once glaciated, carbon and nutrient-poor landscapes. The small lakes of northern Vermont (USA) provide an appropriate setting in which to investigate such changes.

As part of a multidisciplinary study of three Vermont lake sediment cores, samples ranging in age …

A Biogeochemical Comparison Of Fossil (Carboniferous) And Modern Crustose Red Algae, Michael A. Kruge, John E. Utgaard, William Ferry

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The nature of the contribution of the various types of algae to sedimentary organic matter continues to be a topic of research interest. Crustose red algae have however received less attention than other types. The fossil calcareous red algae (Rhodophyta) analyzed in this study are two relatively unrecrystallized specimens of Parachaetetes (Family Solenoporacea) from the lower part of the Ste. Genevieve Formation (Carboniferous, Visean) in Union County, Illinois, USA. They occurred in the patch reef phase of a small carbonate mudmound-patchreef. The three modern specimens (collected and identified by F. Collier) are the crustose algae Lithothamnion, Clathromorphum and Phymatolithon …

Fossil Charcoal In Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Strata: Evidence For Catastrophic Firestorm And Megawave, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Organic matter separated from calcareous sandstone from the upper portion of a deep-water tsunami deposit at Arroyo el Mimbral, Taumalipas (Mexico), which marks the biostratigraphically-defined Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, consists primarily of fossil charcoal, including semifusinite and pyrofusinite. Analytical pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed the highly aromatic and polyaromatic character of the organic matter assemblage, typical of the products of partial combustion. The organic matter probably originated as terrestrial vegetation that was caught in a firestorm and subsequently transported far offshore in the backwash of a megawave. These data are consistent with the hypothesis of combustion of large masses of vegetation triggered by …

Serravallian Shales In The Monte Dei Corvi Pelagic Sequence (Ancona, Italy): An Organic Geochemical Perspective, Michael A. Kruge, B Artur Stankiewicz, Alessandro Montanari

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In addition to the predominant marly lithologies, the Serravallian-Tortonian sequence at Monte dei Corvi (MDC), south of Ancona, Italy, contains at least 85 thin, dark calcareous shales. Such shales, averaging 14 cm in thickness, comprise 9% of the total Serravallian sequence. Sixteen of them were sampled for a preliminary organic geochemical evaluation. All the MDC shales appear to have been deposited during periodic anoxic events, as demonstrated by the presence of significant quantities of organic matter and authigenic pyrite. The degree of anoxicity (and thus the amount of organic matter preserved) appears to have differed from one event to the …

Biological Markers In Lower Jurassic Synrift Lacustrine Black Shales, Hartford Basin, Connecticut, U.S.A., Michael A. Kruge, John F. Hubert, Jay F. Akes, Paul E. Meriney

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The East Berlin Formation (Lower Jurassic, Hartford basin, Connecticut, U.S.A.) is distinctive for its six cyclic units of lacustrine black shale and gray mudstone. separated by playa and fluvial redbeds. The black shales arc each about a meter thick and were deposited in subtropical, thermally stratified, oligomictic lakes, the youngest of which (lakes 3 through 6) were large enough to flood most of the basin and attained depths of several tens of meters.

The saturate fractions of solvent extracts of organic-rich black shales from each of the six lakes, collected at fresh roadcuts near East Berlin, arc dominated by extended …

Organic Geochemistry Of A Lower Jurassic Synrift Lacustrine Sequence, Hartford Basin, Connecticut, U.S.A., Michael A. Kruge, John F. Hubert, David F. Bensley, John C. Crelling, R Jay Akes, Paul E. Meriney

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Synrift terrestrial strata of the Lower Jurassic East Berlin Formation (Hartford basin, Connecticut, U.S.A.) record cyclical expansion and contraction of major lakes, six of which were deep enough to develop anoxic bottom waters. We have studied one representative lacustrine sequence in detail, sampling a new roadcut near the village of East Berlin. The section examined is 4 m thick, with a gray siltstone at the base, deposited in shallow water, overlain by an organic-rich black shale (deep water), succeeded in turn by another gray siltstone, deposited as the lake waters gradually receded. The upper gray siltstone is chemically distinct from …

Biomarker Geochemistry Of The Miocene Monterey Formation, West San Joaquin Basin, California: Implications For Petroleum Generation, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Much of the Miocene Monterey Formation of California is rich in biogenic sediment, especially organic matter and silica. Because of the geologic structure, the Monterey in the subsurface near Lost Hills in the San Joaquin Basin forms a natural laboratory for the study of the diagenetic responses of these materials. Rocks of similar age and lithology are buried to depths ranging between 500 and 3500 m, and are thus exposed to a temperature range of 45–130°C. The diagenetic progression of silica from opal-A to opal-CT to microquartz is well-documented in Monterey burial history studies. However, diagenetic indicators need to be …