Evolution of the northern Tethyan Helvetic Platform during the late Berriasian and early Valanginian

Abstract

The Early Cretaceous period is characterized by widespread carbonate production in tropical and subtropical epicontinental seas, which was modulated by changes in sea-level, detrital and nutrient fluxes, and the global carbon cycle. As a result, carbonate platforms were sensitive recorders of environmental change, which often anticipated global environmental perturbations. A good example is provided by the northern Tethyan carbonate platform, which is presently preserved in the central European Helvetic Alps. There, the latest early to late Valanginian Weissert episode of global change, which is defined by the first important positive shift in δ13C records of the Cretaceous, is expressed by a prolonged, stepwise drowning phase. In this contribution, a detailed reconstruction of palaeoenvironmental change before and during the Weissert episode is provided based on three representative sections of the Helvetic platform. The sections are placed along a deepening transect and correlated by means of ammonite and microfossil biostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy and δ13C chemostratigraphy. In a first phase of palaeoenvironmental change during the latest Berriasian, photozoan carbonate production was stopped by a major and hitherto undetected drowning episode, which was followed by a phase of renewed carbonate production by heterozoan biota. This phase was linked to major sea-level rise, a change to a more humid climate and strong regional subsidence associated with tectonic block tilting. During the Valanginian, the circulation of nutrient-enriched sea waters prevented a return to oligotrophic conditions and two further drowning episodes occurred, which are both documented by condensed phosphate-rich beds and dated as middle early Valanginian and late Valanginian to early Hauterivian. The exact causes of the three-step deterioration in carbonate production are not established but a link to episodic volcanic activity is likely, eventually related to the formation of the Paranà-Etendeka large igneous province.