Integrated bio-chemo-cyclostratigraphy of early Eocene carbon cycle aberrations from the Northern Negev

Abstract

Core RH-323 drilled in the Revivim Valley, southern Israel, provides an expanded upper Paleocene to middle Eocene sedimentary succession, deposited in an upper-middle slope environment on the southern margin of the Tethys. We present high resolution lithological, bulk geochemical and biostratigraphic data for the lower Eocene to optimize stratigraphic constraints on the sequence. Variability in magnetic susceptibility (MS) is pervasively controlled by astronomical forcing. The identification of a clear short eccentricity signal in the MS record provides a foundation for the astronomical tuning of the surveyed interval guided by calcareous nannofossil and dinoflagellate cyst biostratigraphy. On this basis, the available δ13C record has been independently tuned to the La2010b astronomical solution, which allowed for an orbital scale correlation of a series of negative carbon isotope excursions (CIEs) recorded in bulk sediment calcium carbonate to the well-known series of CIEs in the global exogenic carbon pool, associated with global warming. Interestingly, spectral analysis suggests a potential presence of a half-precession signal, and an enhancement of the obliquity signal across the CIEs.