cyclicities in triassic platform carbonates synchronizing radio isotopic and orbital clocks sedimentary cycles recorded in young sediments are often attributed to fluctuations of the earth s climate on a 10 4 10 6 year scale which in turn is governed by periodic variations in solar insolation linked to orbital milankovitch parameters a spectacular example of cyclic stratal patterns in ancient deposits is the middle triassic latemar carbonate platform w dolomites n italy based on spectral analyses from previous studies a superimposition of precession 20 ka and eccentricity 100 ka controlled sea level fluctuations has been suggested to account for the stacking hierarchy at latemar with 20 ka being assigned to each highest order depositional cycle zircon u pb isotopic ages from volcanic ash layers within the cyclic succession corroborated by biostratigraphic constraints suggest that the average time interval for every individual cycle is significantly smaller than the shortest milankovitch period and therefore challenge previously published interpretations relating distinct spectral peaks to the above mentioned hierarchy however our new spectral data indicate that cyclicities resembling milankovitch characteristics might exist but on an entirely different scale our findings show that frequency spectra should only be interpreted in combination with robust age control they also encourage the search for complementary mechanisms controlling carbonate deposition

insolation values for the climate of the last 10 million years new values for the astronomical parameters of the earth s orbit and rotation eccentricity obliquity and precession are proposed for paleoclimatic research related to the late miocene the pliocene and the quaternary they have been obtained from a numerical solution of the lagrangian system of the planetary point masses and from an analytical solution of the poisson equations of the earth moon system the analytical expansion allows the direct determination of the main frequencies with their phase and amplitude numerical and analytical comparisons with the former astronomical solution ber78 are performed so that the accuracy and the interval of time over which the new solution is valid can be estimated the corresponding insolation values have also been computed this analysis leads to the conclusion that the new values are expected to be reliable over the last 5 ma in the time domain and at least over the last 10 ma in the frequency domain

geochronology and calibration of global milankovitch cyclicity at the cenomanian turonian boundary new 40 ar 39 ar geochronology and global cyclostratigraphic calibration provide high resolution insights into the timing of geochemical fluctuations across oceanic anoxic event ii oae ii five new 40 ar 39 ar data from a single section in western canada suggest an age of 96 4 1 ma for the cenomanian turonian c t boundary this is 3 m y older than previously dated time series analysis e g wavelet transform reveals that oae ii was synchronously deposited worldwide over a period of 320 k y the preservation and stationarity of milankovitch cyclicity in sections across the atlantic indicates that no major fluctuations in sedimentation rate occur across the oae ii except for a minor short term decrease in the rate just before the c t boundary a 13 c org increase of 2 took place at the beginning of oae ii over a period of 110 k y and likely represents a period of worldwide excessive organic carbon burial during transgression leading to a 12 c depletion of seawater and sedimentation this interval was followed by a three step decrease to pre oae ii 13 c values

cyclicity in the green river formation lacustrine eocene of wyoming abstract basinal facies of the green river formation have two main modes lacustrine and playa the lacustrine mode tipton and laney members accumulated mainly varved oil shale here annual cycles are recorded as varves variations in verve thickness demonstrate el nino enso type and sunspot cycles ripepe et al this volume milankovitch scale cycles are not obvious in lithic variations but gamma ray logs record 1 precessional variations with a mean period varve timed of 19 5 ka and 2 a bundling of these in the ca 100 ka eccentricity cycle in the playa mode wilkins peak member the lithic succession oil shale trona dolomitic marlstone records the precessional drying up of a lake and is again bundled in sets of 5 by the 100 ka eccentricity rhythm the tipton member persisted f r 450 ka the wilkins peak member for ca 1 ma

40ar 39ar geochronology of the eocene green river formation wyoming the deposits of eocene lake gosiute that constitute the green river formation of wyoming contain numerous tuff beds that represent isochronous correlatable stratigraphic markers tuff beds selected for 40ar 39ar analysis occur within laminated mudstone are matrix supported and lack evidence of reworking these tuffs contain 2 15 euhedral phenocrysts of quartz plagioclase sanidine biotite and minor amphibole pyroxene and zircon encased in a matrix of altered glassy ash air abrasion and handpicking under refractive index oils were required to obtain clean unaltered phenocrysts of sanidine 40ar 39ar age determinations from single crystal and 1 mg multigrain aliquots of sanidine and biotite allowed the identification and exclusion of xenocrystic contamination laser fusion experiments on phenocrysts from the rife firehole c bed grey main sixth and analcite tuff beds from the tipton wilkins peak and laney members yielded weighted mean ages 2 analytical uncertainties of 51 25 0 31 ma 50 70 0 14 ma 50 56 0 26 ma 50 39 0 13 ma 49 96 0 08 ma 49 70 0 10 ma and 48 94 0 12 ma respectively ages for sanidine and biotite from the main tuff are indistinguishable when presumably xenocrystic contaminants are excluded from the age calculation moreover the 40ar 39ar ages are consistent with the stratigraphic order of the tuff beds and with provenance in the absaroka and challis volcanic fields our 40ar 39ar based age model indicates that sediment accumulated three times more rapidly 327 86 m yr during the evaporative wilkins peak phase than the freshwater to saline tipton 88 34 m yr and laney 104 18 m yr phases the much lower accumulation rates for the tipton and laney members are permissive of an annual origin for 1 mm thick laminae and precessional forcing of 1 3 m thick depositional cycles in these units however previously described cycles in the wilkins peak member have average durations that are significantly shorter than the 19 23 k y precessional modes the green river formation encompasses an 5 m y period between ca 53 5 and 48 5 ma spanning magnetic chrons 24n through 21r the green river formation was therefore deposited during the warmest period of the cenozoic corresponding to the early eocene climatic optimum as defined by the global marine o isotope record deposition of bedded evaporites trona of the wilkins peak member began at ca 51 ma or 2 m y after the onset of the highest inferred temperatures of the climatic optimum the bridgerian wasatchian faunal turnover occurred subsequently during wilkins peak time at ca 50 6 ma thus our 40ar 39ar ages strongly suggest that wilkins peak evaporite deposition and the turnover from wasatchian to bridgerian fauna were not directly caused by the initiation of maximum greenhouse conditions

quantification of deep time orbital forcing by average spectral misfit quantification of milankovitch orbital cyclicity within ancient strata has become a principal tool for refinement of the geologic time scale however accurate characterization of the orbital signal in deep time paleoclimate records is commonly challenged by inadequate radiometric time constraints for calibration of the spatial rhythms to temporal periods this problem can potentially introduce large errors into derivative orbital timescales in this study we develop a new method for the identification and calibration of orbital cyclicity in cyclostratigraphic records the method average spectral misfit or asm yields an objective estimate of the optimal sedimentation rate for a stratigraphic interval that preserves a record of orbital forcing the technique also provides a formal statistical test for rejecting the null hypothesis no orbital signal application of the method to assess orbital cyclicity in the upper bridge creek limestone member turonian of the western interior basin highlights the utility of this new cyclostratigraphic tool and provides a means to independently evaluate conflicting interpretations of the lithologic cycles importantly asm offers a new consistent standard by which orbital timescales may be compared hence the quality of an orbital timescale can be formally qualified by reporting its average spectral misfit and null hypothesis significance level this technique will permit improvement of mesozoic cenozoic orbital timescales and extension of orbital time scale development into the paleozoic as the method is not dependent upon well constrained radiometric age data

high resolution calibration of eocene strata 40ar 39ar geochronology of biotite in the green river formation the sixth tuff of the wilkins peak member of the green river formation is an important potential calibration point for magnetic stratigraphy mammalian evolution and lacustrine processes however two recent 40 ar 39 ar ages based on laser fusion of biotite from this important bed are not in agreement with one other most large euhedral biotite from the basal 1 cm give concordant age spectra when incrementally heated however some crystals yield discordant age spectra and have plateau and integrated ages that are scattered toward both older and younger apparent ages electron probe microanalysis indicates that intergrown alteration phases occur in a small fraction of sixth tuff biotite crystals and likely contributed to open system processes that led to the observed discordance and age scatter a new age of 49 62 0 10 ma is obtained from 22 concordant incremental heating experiments this age agrees with a new 49 78 0 08 ma age for the sanidine from the layered tuff which is stratigraphically 24 m below the sixth tuff

biostratigraphic and radiometric age data question the milankovitch characteristics of the latemar cycle southern alps italy comment and reply

resolving milankovitchian controversies the triassic latemar limestone and the eocene green river formation although orbital forcing is commonly proposed as the driver of ancient sedimentary rhythms the lack of adequate independent time control radio isotopic data to calibrate these cycles has stood as a major challenge to evaluation of the hypothesis here i apply a new statistical approach to evaluate cyclicity in two historically important rhythmic units for which orbital forcing has been proposed the triassic latemar limestone dolomites italy and the eocene green river formation wyoming usa a major advance of the new method is its explicit evaluation of the null hypothesis of no orbital signal the null hypothesis can be rejected with a high degree of confi dence in the latemar limestone probability 0 30 and green river formation probability 0 07 the analyses also resolve controversies about the specifi c orbital calibrations at each site both data series reveal the expected precession obliquity and eccentricity orbital components and yield astrochronologies that are consistent with proposed radio isotopic based time scales

new perspectives on orbitally forced stratigraphy this survey of the current status of research into earth s orbitally forced paleoclimatic record summarizes recent developments in the theory of earth s orbital parameters and reviews how various techniques of data collection and analysis have fared in the search and recovery of orbital signals in ancient stratigraphy the emerging significance of the quasi periodicity of earth s orbital variations as a prin cipal tool in the analysis of orbitally forced stratigraphy is discussed in detail five case studies are presented that illustrate new directions in research a time series analysis of discontinuous strata b measurement of ultra high resolution stratigraphic signals c new perspectives on the 100 kyr pleistocene glaciation problem d strati graphic evidence for solar system resonance modes and e evaluating phanerozoic length of day from orbitally forced stratigraphy the study of how earth s orbital parameters came to be recorded in ancient stra tigraphy has recently moved into a new phase of scientific inquiry and discovery notable advances in celestial mechanics and in the analysis of stratigraphic data have given rise to new ways of solving old problems and have uncovered new problems for the first time new tools have facilitated the recovery of extended high resolution orbital signals from stratigraphy advanced analytical techniques have now been fully incorporated into the field an updated theory of earth s orbital parameters provides an accurate ephemeris for the past 16 million years for precision correlation between earth s orbital parameters and orbitally forced stratigraphy some orbital eccentricity modes can be used for orbital stratal cal ibrations to several hundred million years ago these breakthroughs have transformed the study of orbitally forced stratigra phy into an applied field that addresses long standing problems in disciplines as far ranging as geochronology geodynamics and astrodynamics orbital signals provide the framework for a high resolution orbital chronostratigraphy as far back

facies successions in peritidal carbonate sequences abstract high frequency stratigraphic order in epicratonic sections is increasingly attributed to the widespread influence of milankovitch band climate forcing and attendant eustatic sealevel change on patterns of limestone and dolostone accumulation throughout much of the proterozoic and phanerozoic record however the actual existence of upward shallowing lithofacies associations has rarely been explicitly demonstrated and in contrast to such perceptions of periodic and global accumulation many carbonate sequences can just as readily be interpreted as largely constituting unordered assemblages of various peritidal lithologies examination of published data from several long epicratonic sequences indicates that their division into shallowing cycles is a rather subjective exercise inferenc of repeated shoaling has commonly relied more heavily on the stratigraphic recurrence of particular units interpreted as representing extremely shallow to exposure conditions than on any documented tendency for groups of lithofacies to actually constitute upward shallowing associations moreover cycle definition via such picking of cycle tops results not only in a varied assemblage of overlying substitutable base and mid cycle lithologies but also leads to the designation of cycles that contain a relatively small number of stratal elements most reported peritidal cycles contain only two stratal elements mean 2 25 lithofacies shallowing cycle n 627 and thus are indistinguishable from sequences of randomly stacked peritidal units comparison of data on thicknesses and numbers of stratal elements in real world cyclic and model chaotic sequences demonstrates that most proterozoic and phanerozoic sections exhibit little more meter scale ordering of component units than would commonly be present in sequences of randomly associated peritidal lithofacies on the basis of these considerations we conclude that meter scale cyclicity in many if not most epicratonic sequences is more apparent than real that perceptions of repeated and eustatically driven platform flooding are largely incorrect and that a substantial component of presumed meter scale stratigraphic order in peritidal carbonates reflects little more than the random migration of various sedimentary subenvironments over specific platform localities durin long term accumulation of peritidal carbonate

stability of the astronomical frequencies over the earth s history for paleoclimate studies the expected changes over the past 500 million years in the principal astronomical frequencies influencing the earth s climate may be strong enough to be detectable in the geological records and such effects have been inferred in several cases calculations suggest that the shortening of the earth moon distance and of the length of the day back in time induced a shortening of the fundamental periods for the obliquity and climatic precession from 54 to 35 41 to 29 23 to 19 and 19 to 16 thousand years over the last half billion years at the same time the precessional constant increased from 50 to 61 arc seconds per year the changes in the frequencies of the planetary system due to its chaotic motion are much smaller their influence on the changes of the periods of climatic precession obliquity and eccentricity of the earth s orbit around the sun can be neglected eccentricity periods used for quaternary climate studies may therefore be considered to have been more or less constant for pre quaternary times

biostratigraphic and radiometric age data question the milankovitch characteristics of the latemar cycles southern alps italy the combination of age diagnostic fossils in platform carbonates geometrical relationships with coeval basinal successions and single zircon u pb ages from volcaniclastic layers in basinal deposits constrain the age of a cyclic succession in the interior of the latemar platform to a narrow time span in the middle triassic with a duration shorter than 5 m y precession induced milankovitch band sea level oscillations are therefore excluded as controls for most of the 600 platform cycles reported from latemar statistical evaluation and graphic space time analyses of cycle stacking patterns alone may therefore not allow an unambiguous recognition of milankovitch frequencies in ancient platform carbonates

middle triassic orbital signature recorded in the shallow marine latemar carbonate buildup dolomites italy a new time frequency analysis of sea level controlled carbonate platform cycles in the middle triassic latemar massif dolomites italy reveals a strong depositional signature with characteristics of dominant forcing by climatic precession modes corresponding to long and short precession components at 1 21 7 k y and 1 17 6 k y underwent amplitude modulations matching earth9s orbital eccentricity with major frequency components at 1 400 k y 1 125 k y and 1 98 k y obliquity appears as a minor component at 1 35 4 k y the latemar signature thus constitutes the oldest pristine milankovitch signature yet observed in the geologic record its fidelity rivals that of the pliocene pleistocene record originally used to confirm the theory of orbitally forced climates this evidence deepens a widely noted disagreement between radiometric and cyclostratigraphic time scales for the latemar buildup the latemar cycles indicate that orbitally forced sea level oscillations were operative in the ice free middle triassic hothouse world

periodicity of mesoscale phanerozoic sedimentary cycles and the role of milankovitch orbital modulation data on more than 200 mesoscale sedimentary cycles indicate that phanerozoic cycle periods are randomly distributed with respect to the four major milankovitch orbital parameters except late mississippian through late pennsylvanian cycles which show positive clustering about the 413 000 yr eccentricity period cycle periods calculated from average thicknesses and accumulation rates are strongly dependent on the former correlation coefficient 0 802 but relatively independent of the latter correlation coefficient 0 360 hence calculated period is largely a function of average cycle thickness and milankovitch range periods will be preferentially calculated for cycles with average thicknesses between 1 m and 20 m regardless of actual causes of cyclicity for individual cyclic sequences arguments for milankovitch control based solely on average period are unfounded comparison of short term holocene sedimentation rates and long term phanerozoic accumulation rates for cyclic peritidal and delta

integrated quantitative stratigraphy of the cenomanian turonian bridge creek limestone member using evolutive harmonic analysis and stratigraphic modeling abstract secular changes in bulk sedimentation have a significant impact on the preservation of climatic signals in rhythmically bedded strata in this study a quantitative cyclostratigraphic methodology is developed to use these signal distortions as a means to reconstruct sedimentation the method exploits a moving window fourier technique that we designate evolutive harmonic analysis eha we calibrate this methodology to a specific set of geologic conditions i e changes in bulk sedimentation using a series of stratigraphic models and then apply the technique to the cenomanian turonian greenhorn formation of the western interior basin application of eha to strata that preserve a record of orbital forcing allows the reconstruction of a high resolution sedimentation history in which bulk sedimentation rates and hiatuses are quantified using the data on bulk sedimentation rate rates of accumulation for geochemical proxies representing detrital biogenic and authigenic contributions to the sediment can be calculated by integrating these quantitative assessments of siliciclastic dilution primary production and depositional redox conditions within a high resolution chronostratigraphic framework we are able to deconvolve secular trends in hemipelagic sedimentation during the late cenomanian early turonian in the western interior basin this integrated quantitative stratigraphic approach allows a reevaluation of hypotheses for the accumulation of excess organic matter in the western interior basin during the interval representing oceanic anoxic event ii

spectral analysis of the middle triassic latemar limestone abstract the middle triassic latemar limestone in the dolomites region northern italy consists of hundreds of vertically stacked meter scale platform carbonate cycles each cycle is composed of a shallow marine subtidal carbonate unit with a thin centimeter scale vadose diagenetic dolomite cap these latemar couplets are the products of repeated episodes of submergence emergence with durations estimated at 20 000 yr the couplets are arranged in upward thinning bundles of five indicating the presence of a 100 000 year modulating component we examined this high frequency cycling in the platform buildup using a variety of classical and advanced spectral analysis techniques we found si nificant evidence for the presence of a milankovitch forcing signal in this cycling we also present evidence that the adjacent coeval basinal facies the livinallongo formation exhibits a similar bundling pattern in its cm scale hemipelagic carbonate shale alternations we conclude that milankovitch forced small amplitude sea level oscillations were the most likely cause of these middle triassic carbonate rhythms

sub milankovitch and milankovitch forcing on a model mesozoic carbonate platform the latemar middle triassic italy basic shallowing upward cycles shu cycles and five bundled megacycles in the latemar platform have been widely regarded as a model example for precessional and eccentricity forcing in the mesozoic based on bio chronostratigraphic data recent studies questioned this particular type of milankovitch forcing on the latemar cyclic series we present an integrated model that incorporates i new cyclostratigraphic data ii new and existing bio chronostratigraphic data and iii new spectral analyses the basic shu cycles in the latemar reflect sub milankovitch control cycle bundles of 1 4 5 megacycles shu cycles indicate precessional forcing they do not reflect eccentricity superimposed on precessional forcing spectral analyses reveal highly significant ratios in the large scale cycle bundlings stacking patterns of 1 9 9 and 1 24 0 shu cycles represent obliquity and short eccentricity forcing both sub milankovitch and milankovitch forcing potentially controlled shallow subtidal carbonate deposition in mesozoic greenhouse times cyclostratigraphic models require an integrated approach including bio and chronostratigraphic data

eocene calibration of geomagnetic polarity time scale reevaluated evidence from the green river formation of wyoming we reevaluate the eocene geomagnetic polarity time scale on the basis of single crystal 40 ar 39 ar ages for air fall tuffs from the wilkins peak member of the green river for mation of wyoming tuff 6 is dated as 49 1 6 0 2 ma and tuff 3 is dated as 50 4 6 0 3 ma maximum estimate when combined with published magnetostratigraphic con straints these age determinations suggest that the currently accepted age of chron c22r is 1 5 2 5 m y too old which supports a significantly longer duration for the early eocene for the early eocene climatic optimum and the wasatchian north american land mam mal age

predicting the long term fate of buried organic carbon in colluvial soils a significant part of the soil organic carbon soc that is eroded in uplands is deposited and buried in colluvial settings understanding the fate of this deposited soil organic carbon is of key importance for the understanding of the role of accelerated erosion in the global c cycle the residence time of the deposited carbon will determine if and for how long accelerated erosion due to human disturbance will induce sequestration of soc from the atmosphere to the soil experimental studies may provide useful information but given the time scale under consideration the response of the colluvial soc can only be simulated using numerical models which need careful calibration using field data in this study we present a depth explicit soc model including soil profile evolution due to sedimentation to simulate the long term c dynamics in colluvial soils the soc profile predicted by our model is in good agreement with field observations the c burial efficiency the ratio of current c content of the buried sediments to the original c content at the time of sedimentation of deposited sediments exponentially decreases with time and gradually reaches an equilibrium value this equilibrium c burial efficiency is positively correlated with the sedimentation rate the sedimentation rate is crucial for the long term dynamics of the deposited soc as it controls the time that buried sediments spend at a given soil depth thereby determining its temporal evolution of c input and decomposition rate during the burial process c input and decomposition rate vary with depth due to the vertical variation of root distribution and soil environmental factors such as but not limited to humidity temperature and aeration the model demonstrates that for the profiles studied it takes circa 300 years for the buried soc to lose half of its c load it would also take centuries for the soc accumulated in colluvial soils over the past decades due to soil redistribution under mechanized agriculture to be released to the atmosphere after the application of soil conservation measures such as conservation tillage

paleomagnetic calibration of milankovitch cyclicity in lower cretaceous sediments abstract bedded pelagic limestones of early to mid cretaceous age may record cyclic climate variability driven by changes in the earth s orbit milankovitch cycles if properly calibrated the lithologic cycles could provide sedimentary chronometry at far shorter time scales than biostratigraphy and magnetic stratigraphy the lower cretaceous maiolica formation of northern and central italy displays rythmic bedding in sections whose magnetic reversal sequence is clearly correlated to the upper m series marine anomalies the magnetic reversals divide measured sections into 0 5 2 myr increments in which sedimentation rate assuming continous deposition can be measured to 15 25 accuracy paleomagnetically estimated sedimentation rates over a number of polarity zones establish with one exception a narrow range in periods of the carbonate cycles carbonate couplets have an estimated mean period of 23 5 kyr and prominent modulations in bedding thickness bundling have a mean period of 117 kyr kent and gradstein 1985 time scale the close match of sedimentary periodicities to orbital repeat times implies that the carbonate cycles reflect a combination of professional and eccentricity climatic forcing comparison of measured sections from different locations shows that bed to bed correlations are possible regionally cosistent with the milankovitch hypothesis episodes of barremian black shale deposition occur in the troughs of the short eccentricity cycle as roughly one half of the carbonate marl couplet or about 10 kyr duration it is possible to estimate both the timing relative to the top of reversed chron m 0 and duration of a period of unusual organic carbon rich deposition selli horizon in the early part of the cretaceous long normal magnetic polarity interval by tracing the sedimentary cycles up from the barremian strata

high resolution upb dating of middle triassic volcaniclastics time scale calibration and verification of tuning parameters for carbonate sedimentation abstract we report high resolution single zircon u pb age data for middle triassic volcaniclastic intercalations in biostratigraphically calibrated pelagic successions of the southern alps the results require a redefinition of the chronometric scale for the middle triassic moreover they do not support current models relating cyclic sedimentation in platform carbonates of the dolomites to orbital tuning tight concordant age clusters were obtained for five volcaniclastic layers in three ammonoid biozones of late anisian to early ladinian age two layers in the nevadites secedensis zone yielded identical mean 206 pb 238 u ages of 241 2 0 8 0 8 ma and 241 2 0 8 0 6 ma errors given at the 95 confidence level a layer in the gredleri zone is dated at 238 8 0 5 0 2 ma and two horizons in the archelaus zone yield similar ages of 237 9 1 0 0 7 ma and 238 0 0 4 0 7 ma these results are significantly older than the age values of 233 235 ma assigned to the anisian ladinian boundary by several current time scales 1 4 moreover our estimate of 240 7 241 3 ma depending on biostratigraphic collocation for the anisian ladinian boundary casts doubts on the reliability of age values of 245 250 ma proposed by most time scales for the permian triassic boundary the occurrence of pelagic fossils in basinal sediments as well as in age equivalent shallow marine middle triassic platform carbonates in the dolomites allows the sedimentary sequences of both environments to be correlated the 800 m thick latemar platform western dolomites is characterized by cyclic stacking patterns which have been interpreted as results of milankovitch type high frequency low amplitude sea level fluctuations the 12 m y interval of platform growth postulated from the assignment of orbital periodicities to the platform carbonate cycles 5 6 is in conflict with a maximum time span of 4 7 m y allowed by the present zircon data