Premium
Obliquity‐dominated glacio‐eustatic sea level change in the early Oligocene: evidence from the shallow marine siliciclastic Rupelian stratotype (Boom Formation, Belgium)
Author(s) -
Abels Hemmo A.,
Simaeys Stefaan Van,
Hilgen Frits J.,
Man Ellen De,
Vandenberghe Noël
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
terra nova
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.353
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-3121
pISSN - 0954-4879
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3121.2006.00716.x
Subject(s) - geology , stratotype , paleontology , ecological succession , sea level , siliciclastic , oceanography , stage (stratigraphy) , sedimentary depositional environment , ecology , biology , structural basin
Our results prove that glacio‐eustatic sea level oscillations in the early Oligocene were dominantly obliquity controlled with additional influence of the ∼100‐ and 405‐kyr eccentricity cycles. This was derived from spectral analysis of resistivity records from an extended downhole section of the Boom Clay succession in Belgium, that reveals a prevailing obliquity control on the laterally persistent metre‐scale alternations of shallow marine silt‐ and claystones in the Rupelian historical stratotype succession. These direct measurements of sea level variations in a shallow marine setting corroborate that variations with similar frequencies in benthonic oxygen isotope records from the open ocean indeed reflect, at least partly, ice volume change. A very tentative astronomical tuning has been established for the Boom Clay succession which awaits future confirmation with the addition of more accurate age calibration points.