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Jianwei Shen - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • upper devonian reefs and microbialite at maoying south china implications for paleoenvironmental changes
    Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 2017
    Co-Authors: Jianwei Shen, Na Zhao, Allison L Young, Yingjiang Mao, Yue Wang
    Abstract:

    Abstract Reefal carbonate deposits in South China preserve a record of community structure and environmental change across the Frasnian-Famennian boundary and through the Late Devonian, detailing a regional response to one of the largest mass extinction events in Earth history. The Upper Devonian (Frasnian to Famennian) limestone outcrops in the Maoying area of northern Ziyun County, South China, record a carbonate platform depositional setting with some patch reef development. The Upper Devonian carbonate deposits in Maoying area are distinctive from those in correlative sections in Dushan County with rare argillaceous limestone and dolomitic limestone as well as less dolostone. Exposures to the south in the Guilin area of northeastern Guangxi Province are similar to those seen in the study area. Upper Devonian carbonates in the Maoying area are divided into two lithologic groups, reef limestones or dolostone beds, composed of five lithologically distinctive intervals. The Upper Devonian strata have a cumulative thickness of 530 m. The Upper Devonian reefs in the Maoying area were developed on a shell pavement of brachiopod- and bivalve-shell shoal packstones and evolved into patch reefs in the interior of the carbonate platform. Patch-reef development was limited to early Frasnian time. Reef-building organisms are dominated by massive and tabular stromatoporoids, Amphipora sp., Stachyodes sp., and coral Thamnopora sp., while brachiopods and algae accumulated between stromatoporoid skeletal frameworks. Three evolutionary stages of the Frasnian patch reefs, including an initial development stage, maturity stage and demise stage, can be recognized according to sedimentary structures and fossil assemblage characteristics. The Frasnian strata overlying the patch reefs represent a well-bedded back-reef depositional setting and are mainly composed of Amphipora floatstone and packstone containing a few bulbous stromatoporoids and small fasciculate corals. Famennian strata are characterized by laminated limestone and fenestrate limestone that are interbedded with infrequent mudstone and argillaceous limestone horizons. A prominent microbialite bed developed in the laminated limestone of the Famennian carbonate platform consists of stromatolite and thrombolite framestone. This bed can be correlated, in horizon and age, with microbial reefs and mounds in the Famennian offshore carbonate platform in the Huanan Epeiric Sea (such as Famennian microbial reefs and mounds in Guilin). This represents a biogenic carbonate formation characterized by microbial fabrics that accumulated in a nearshore carbonate platform setting after the global Frasnian/Famennian biotic extinction event, which promoted the growth of microbialites during the latest Devonian in South China.

  • microbial mounds prior to the Frasnian famennian mass extinctions hantang guilin south china
    Sedimentology, 2010
    Co-Authors: Jianwei Shen, Gregory E Webb, Hairuo Qing
    Abstract:

    Late Frasnian mounds of the Yunghsien Formation, Guilin, South China, developed as part of the Guilin platform, mostly in reef-flat and platform margin settings. Microbial mounds in platform margin settings at Hantang, about 10 km west of Guilin, contain Frasnian biota, such as Stachyodes and Kuangxiastraea and, thus, occur below the Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction boundary. Platform margin facies were dominated by microbes, algae and receptaculitids. Massive corals and stromatoporoids are not common and rarely show reef-building functions as they did in Givetian time. The margin mounds are composed of brachiopod-receptaculitid cementstone, and a variety of boundstones that contain Rothpletzella, Renalcis, thrombolite and stromatolite. Other microbial communities include Girvanella, Izhella, Ortonella and Wetheredella. Solenoporoid algae are abundant locally. Zebra structures and neptunian dykes are well-developed at some intervals. Pervasive early cementation played an important role in lithification of the microbial boundstones and rudstones. Frasnian reefs of many regions of the world were constructed by stromatoporoids and corals, although a shift to calcimicrobe-dominated frameworks occurred before the Famennian. However, the exact ages of many Frasnian margin outcrops are poorly constrained owing to difficulties dating shallow carbonate facies. The Hantang mounds represent a microbe-dominated reef-building community with rare skeletal reef builders, consistent with major Late Devonian changes in reef composition, diversity and guild structure occurring before the end of the Frasnian. A similar transition occurred in the Canning Basin of Western Australia, but coeval successions in North America, Western Europe and the northern Urals are either less well-known or represent different bathymetric settings. The transition in reef-building style below the Frasnian-Famennian boundary is documented here in the two best exposed successions on two continents, which may have been global. Set in the larger context of Late Devonian and Mississippian microbial reef-building, the Hantang mounds help to demonstrate that controls on microbial reef communities differed from those on larger skeletal reef biota. Calcimicrobes replaced stromatoporoids as major reef builders before the Frasnian-Famennian extinction event, and increasing stromatoporoid diversity towards the end of the Famennian did not result in a resurgence of skeletal reef frameworks. Calcimicrobes dominated margin facies through the Famennian, but declined near the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. Stromatolite and thrombolite facies, which occurred behind the mound margin at Hantang, rose to dominate Mississippian shallow-water reef frameworks with only a minor resurgence of the important Frasnian calcimicrobe Renalcis in the Visean when well-skeletonized organisms (corals) also became volumetrically significant frame builders again.

Kenneth J. Mcnamara - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • the effect of environmental changes on the evolution and extinction of late devonian trilobites from the northern canning basin western australia
    Geological Society London Special Publications, 2016
    Co-Authors: Kenneth J. Mcnamara, Raimund Feist
    Abstract:

    The Frasnian–Famennian Virgin Hills Formation represents fore-reef facies deposited as part of the extensive Late Devonian reef system that fringed the SW Kimberley Block in Western Australia. It contains a rich trilobite fauna dominated primarily by proetids and, to a lesser extent, harpetids, phacopids, scutelluids and odontopleurids. To date, 49 taxa have been described, 40 of these being restricted to the Frasnian. Herein five Frasnian taxa are described, three in open nomenclature, and two the new species Telopeltis intermedia and Otarion fugitivum. Evolutionary trends in the Virgin Hills trilobites are dominated by a reduction in body size and eye size and, to a lesser extent, a reduction in exoskeletal vaulting. Although recording no sedimentological signature, the fauna was strongly affected by the two globally recognized Kellwasser extinction events. The first, at the end of conodont Zone 12, affected taxa at the species and genus level. The second, within Zone 13b, had a much greater impact on the fauna, causing extinctions at the familial and ordinal levels. Evidence is presented to suggest that evolutionary trends in the trilobites during the late Frasnian reflect selection for forms adapted to low nutrient conditions. The two intensive Kellwasser extinction episodes may reflect periodic massive inputs of nutrients from the terrestrial into the shallow-marine environment.

  • patterns of evolution and extinction in proetid trilobites during the late devonian mass extinction event canning basin western australia
    Palaeontology, 2013
    Co-Authors: Raimund Feist, Kenneth J. Mcnamara
    Abstract:

    In the early Late Devonian, terminal Frasnian proetid trilobites have previously only been known from Europe and North Africa. For the first time, a rich fauna of late Frasnian proetids is described from the Virgin Hills Formation, Canning Basin, Western Australia. Seventeen species in six genera are described, of which three are new: Rudybole gen. nov., Palpebralina gen. nov. and Canningbole gen. nov. A new subgenus, Chlupaciparia (Australoparia) subgen. nov. is also described. Fourteen of the species are new: Palpebralia initialis sp. nov., P. pustulata sp. nov., ?P. sp. nov. A, Rudybole depressa sp. nov., Palpebralina pseudopalpebralis sp. nov. (comprising the subspecies P. pseudopalpebralis pseudopalpebralis subsp. nov. and P. pseudopalpebralis ultima subsp. nov.), P. minor sp. nov., P. ocellifer sp. nov., Canningbole latimargo sp. nov., C. henwoodorum sp. nov., C. macromma sp. nov., Pteroparia extrema sp. nov., Chlupaciparia (Chlupaciparia) planiops sp. nov., Chlupaciparia (Australoparia) australis sp. nov. and C. (Australoparia) lata sp. nov. The subspecies Rudybole adorfensis angusta subsp. nov. is also described. The proetids range through conodont Zones 11–13b and terminate at the Upper Kellwasser Event, which marks the terminal Frasnian mass extinction event. Three of the six proetid lineages, Palpebralia, Canningbole and Pteroparia, show evolutionary trends of eye reduction. Two of the remaining lineages, Rudybole and Palpebralina, consist exclusively of blind taxa. The last, Chlupaciparia, also comprises forms with reduced eyes. The proetids show a stepped pattern of extinction during the late Frasnian, which correlate with two Kellwasser biocrises documented in European/North African Frasnian sections. The highest diversity preceded the Lower Kellwasser event that occurred at the end of conodont Zone 12 and saw the extinction of all species present in that zone. However, only one genus, Pteroparia, locally became extinct. A major higher-level taxonomic mass extinction at the top of Zone 13b initiated the Upper Kellwasser extinction event. This included extinction at the generic level, with all five remaining genera becoming extinct, and at the family level, with the loss of the Tropidocoryphidae.

  • patterns of extinction and recovery of phacopid trilobites during the Frasnian famennian late devonian mass extinction event canning basin western australia
    Geological Magazine, 2009
    Co-Authors: Raimund Feist, Kenneth J. Mcnamara, Catherine Cronier, Rudy Leroseyaubril
    Abstract:

    A diverse fauna of phacopid trilobites is described from the Late Devonian (middle Frasnian to early Famennian) of the northern Canning Basin, Western Australia. One new genus and four species in two genera are described from zones 11, 13a and 13b of the middle and late Frasnian: Trimerocephaloides sinevisus gen. nov. and sp. nov., T. ? linguiformis sp. nov., Acuticryphops acuticeps (Kayser, 1889) and A. klapperi sp. nov. Late Frasnian phacopines are either blind, as shown for the first time in Trimerocephaloides sinevisus, or show trends to decreasing eye size up to the Frasnian-Famennian 'Kellwasser' mass extinction event. This evolutionary trend in Acuticryphops is demonstrated to have been global at this time. One new genus and six species of early Famennian phacopids are described, from the Upper triangularis, crepida and rhomboidea zones: Houseops gen. nov. with the new taxa H. canningensis sp. nov., H. beckeri sp. nov. and H. sp. A, Babinops planiventer Feist & Becker, 1997, B. minor sp. nov., Trimerocephalus tardispinosus Feist & Becker, 1997 and T. mimbi sp. nov. In contrast to European sections where exclusively blind phacopids are known in earliest Famennian sites, initial recovery following the mass extinction event in Canning peri-reefal environments is characterized by oculated forms. These trilobites must have evolved from conservative ancestors with normal eyes that had succeeded in surviving the Kellwasser biocrises in reef-related shallow water niches. Thus the origin of post-event phacopids from shallow water environments is demonstrated for the first time. Descendant lineages show increasing eye size, increased cephalic vaulting and effacement during the early Famennian. Of the five orders of trilobites that are present during the Frasnian Stage at the beginning of the Late Devonian, only two, the Proetida and the Phacopida, survived into the Famennian. The presence of a conformable sequence of trilobite-bearing fore-reef limestones, the Virgin Hills Formation, that form part of the Late Devonian reef system in the northern part of the Canning Basin in Western Australia, allows the patterns of evolution and extinction of the late Frasnian and early Famennian trilobites to be assessed. In these deposits the three orders that became extinct during the Frasnian-Famennian biocrises were the Corynexochida (McNamara & Feist, 2006), the Lichida (Feist & McNamara, 2007) and the Harpetida (McNamara, Feist & Ebach, in press). Here we focus on one of the groups that survived this event, the Phacopida. Although, with a single exception, they are rare elements of the trilobite fauna in the Canning Basin, the phacopids are generically the most diverse of the

  • Biodiversity, distribution and patterns of extinction of the last odontopleuroid trilobites during the Devonian (Givetian, Frasnian)
    Geological Magazine, 2007
    Co-Authors: Raimund Feist, Kenneth J. Mcnamara
    Abstract:

    Biostratigraphical ranges and palaeogeographical distribution of mid-Givetian to end-Frasnian odontopleurids are investigated. The discovery of Leonaspis rhenohercynica sp. nov. in mid-Givetian strata extends this genus unexpectedly up to the late Middle Devonian. New material of Radiaspis radiata (Goldfuss, 1843) and the first koneprusiine in Britain, Koneprusia? sp., are described from the famous Lummaton shell-bed, Torquay, Devon. New taxa of Koneprusia, K. serrensis, K. aboussalamae, K. brevispina, and K. sp. A and K. sp. B are defined. Ceratocephala (Leonaspis) harborti Richter & Richter, 1926, is revised and reassigned to Gondwanaspis Feist, 2002. Two new species of Gondwanaspis, G. dracula and G. spinosa, plus three others left in open nomenclature, are described from the late Frasnian of Western Australia. A further species of Gondwanaspis, G. prisca, is described from the early Frasnian of Montague Noire. Species of Gondwanaspis are shown to possess a number of paedomorphic features. A functional analysis suggests that, unlike other odontopleurids, Gondwanaspis actively fed and rested with the same cephalic orientation. The sole odontopleurid survivors of the severe terminal mid-Givetian biocrisis ('Taghanic Event') belong to the koneprusiine Koneprusia in the late Givetian and Frasnian, and, of cryptogenic origin, the acidaspidine Gondwanaspis in the Frasnian. Whereas the former became extinct in the late Frasnian at the Lower Kellwasser Event, the latter disappeared, and with it the entire Odontopleuroidea, at the terminal Frasnian Upper Kellwasser global biocrisis.

Zeyang Liu - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • upper devonian mercury record from north america and its implications for the Frasnian famennian mass extinction
    Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 2021
    Co-Authors: Philippe Claeys, Lawrence Percival, Zeyang Liu, Delphine Vandeputte, David Selby, Jeffrey D Over, Yue Gao
    Abstract:

    Abstract The Frasnian–Famennian biotic crisis (~372 Ma) was one of the “big five” mass extinction events in the Phanerozoic. This event was associated with dramatic climatic and oceanographic perturbations, including oceanic anoxia, global cooling, sea-level fluctuations. Large-scale volcanic activity is one of several possible triggers that have been suggested as the ultimate cause of this crisis, based on Hg enrichment data from widespread sections. However, there are also sections that do not show a Hg enrichment across the Frasnian–Famennian boundary. To further investigate the hypothesis of a volcanic trigger for the Frasnian–Famennian mass extinction event, mercury (Hg) analyses were performed on six North American records (five from the Appalachian Basin and one in the Illinois Basin) that include the Frasnian–Famennian boundary. There is no uniformly observed Hg enrichment at or below the Frasnian–Famennian boundary across the six sites. A potentially volcanically driven Hg anomaly is found in the Illinois Basin; however, the Hg enrichment occurs stratigraphically above the Frasnian–Famennian boundary. Mercury records from the studied sites question the timing of the volcanism that may be responsible for the mass extinction event. Further studies are needed to fully understand the geographic distribution and eruption history of the large igneous provinces, as well as the link between Hg and volcanism during the Frasnian–Famennian interval.

David P G Bond - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Pulses of enhanced continental weathering associated with multiple Late Devonian climate perturbations: Evidence from osmium-isotope compositions
    Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 2019
    Co-Authors: Lawrence M.e. Percival, David P G Bond, Leszek Marynowski, Grzegorz Racki, David Selby, Michał Rakociński, Thierry Adatte, Jorge Enrique Spangenberg, Karl B Follmi
    Abstract:

    Anomalously high rates of continental weathering have frequently been proposed as a key stimulus for the development of widespread marine anoxia during a number of Late Devonian environmental and biospheric crises, which included a major mass extinction during the Frasnian–Famennian transition (marked by the Upper and Lower Kellwasser horizons). Here, this model is investigated by presenting the first stratigraphic record of osmium-isotope trends (187Os/188Os) in upper Devonian strata from the Kowala Quarry (Holy Cross Mountains, Poland). Changes in reconstructed 187Os/188Os seawater values to more radiogenic compositions are documented at the base of both the Lower (~0.42 to ~0.83) and Upper (~0.31 to ~0.81) Kellwasser horizons characteristic of the Frasnian–Famennian transition, and additionally within upper Famennian shales that record a more minor environmental perturbation known as the Annulata Event (~0.20 to ~0.53). These shifts indicate the occurrence of extremely enhanced continental weathering rates at the onsets of the Kellwasser crises and during the later Annulata Event. The similarity of 187Os/188Os values in this study from Frasnian–Famennian boundary and lower Famennian strata (between 0.4 and 0.5) to those from North American stratigraphic equivalents suggests that the 187Os/188Os values record global trends. These findings support a causal relationship between increased continental weathering (and thus, nutrient supply to the marine shelf) and the environmental perturbations that occurred during numerous Late Devonian events, including both of the biospherically catastrophic Kellwasser crises as well as other, less severe, oceanic anoxic events.

  • evidence for shallow water upper kellwasser anoxia in the Frasnian famennian reefs of alberta canada
    Lethaia, 2013
    Co-Authors: David P G Bond, Michal Zaton, Paul B Wignall, Leszek Marynowski
    Abstract:

    The Frasnian–Famennian extinction witnessed the global devastation of both level-bottom and reef communities in low latitudes. Marine extinctions in offshore level-bottom communities are associated with two widespread, transgressive, anoxic ‘Kellwasser Events’ that support an anoxia–extinction link. Typical Kellwasser facies of bituminous limestones and shales are not obviously recorded in shallow-water settings, and thus, it is unclear whether anoxia played a role in reef losses. We evaluate geochemical, petrographic and facies evidence for oxygen restriction from an extremely shallow-water carbonate platform in Alberta. Sequence stratigraphy places the Frasnian–Famennian boundary at a sequence boundary that tops a laminated mudstone and interrupts carbonate platform deposition. Two transgressive pulses have been identified, one of which is associated with the second, major transgression of T-R cycle IId of the Devonian eustatic sea-level curve. Geochemical proxies indicate that these transgressions were accompanied by influx of dysoxic or anoxic waters. Organic carbon and U enrichment in the Frasnian, particularly just below the Frasnian–Famennian boundary, points to episodic dysoxic conditions that probably persisted into the basal Famennian and were coincidental with the global Upper Kellwasser Event. This study provides the first evidence for the smoking gun of an anoxia-driven extinction in very shallow waters, implicating this potent killer in the demise of the Devonian reefs.

  • the astronomical rhythm of late devonian climate change kowala section holy cross mountains poland
    Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2013
    Co-Authors: David De Vleeschouwer, David P G Bond, Grzegorz Racki, Michal Rakocinski, Katarzyna Sobien, Philippe Claeys
    Abstract:

    Rhythmical alternations between limestone and shales or marls characterize the famous Kowala section, Holy Cross Mountains, Poland. Two intervals of this section were studied for evidence of orbital cyclostratigraphy. The oldest interval spans the Frasnian–Famennian boundary, deposited under one of the hottest greenhouse climates of the Phanerozoic. The youngest interval encompasses the Devonian– Carboniferous (D–C) boundary, a pivotal moment in Earth’s climatic history that saw a transition from greenhouse to icehouse. For the Frasnian–Famennian sequence, lithological variations are consistent with 405-kyr and 100-kyr eccentricity forcing and a cyclostratigraphic floating time-scale is presented. The interpretation of observed lithological rhythms as eccentricity cycles is confirmed by amplitude modulation patterns in agreement with astronomical theory and by the recognition of precession cycles in high-resolution stable isotope records. The resulting relative time-scale suggests that � 800 kyr separate the Lower and Upper Kellwasser Events (LKE and UKE, respectively), two periods of anoxia that culminated in massive biodiversity loss at the end of the Frasnian. Th/U and pyrite framboid analyses indicate that during the UKE, oxygen levels remained low for 400 kyr and d 13 C org measure

  • the fate of the homoctenids tentaculitoidea during the Frasnian famennian mass extinction late devonian
    Geobiology, 2006
    Co-Authors: David P G Bond
    Abstract:

    The homoctenids (Tentaculitoidea) are small, conical-shelled marine animals which are amongst the most abundant and widespread of all Late Devonian fossils. They were a principal casualty of the Frasnian-Famennian (F-F, Late Devonian) mass extinction, and thus provide an insight into the extinction dynamics. Despite their abundance during the Late Devonian, they have been largely neglected by extinction studies. A number of Frasnian-Famennian boundary sections have been studied, in Poland, Germany, France, and the United States. These sections have yielded homoctenids, which allow precise recognition of the timing of the mass extinction. It is clear that the homoctenids almost disappear from the fossil record during the latest Frasnian “Upper Kellwasser Event”. The coincident extinction of this pelagic group, and the widespread development of intense marine anoxia within the water column, provides a causal link between anoxia and the F-F extinction. Most notable is the sudden demise of a group, which had been present in rock-forming densities, during this anoxic event. One new species, belonging to Homoctenus is described, but is not formally named here.

Grzegorz Racki - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Pulses of enhanced continental weathering associated with multiple Late Devonian climate perturbations: Evidence from osmium-isotope compositions
    Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 2019
    Co-Authors: Lawrence M.e. Percival, David P G Bond, Leszek Marynowski, Grzegorz Racki, David Selby, Michał Rakociński, Thierry Adatte, Jorge Enrique Spangenberg, Karl B Follmi
    Abstract:

    Anomalously high rates of continental weathering have frequently been proposed as a key stimulus for the development of widespread marine anoxia during a number of Late Devonian environmental and biospheric crises, which included a major mass extinction during the Frasnian–Famennian transition (marked by the Upper and Lower Kellwasser horizons). Here, this model is investigated by presenting the first stratigraphic record of osmium-isotope trends (187Os/188Os) in upper Devonian strata from the Kowala Quarry (Holy Cross Mountains, Poland). Changes in reconstructed 187Os/188Os seawater values to more radiogenic compositions are documented at the base of both the Lower (~0.42 to ~0.83) and Upper (~0.31 to ~0.81) Kellwasser horizons characteristic of the Frasnian–Famennian transition, and additionally within upper Famennian shales that record a more minor environmental perturbation known as the Annulata Event (~0.20 to ~0.53). These shifts indicate the occurrence of extremely enhanced continental weathering rates at the onsets of the Kellwasser crises and during the later Annulata Event. The similarity of 187Os/188Os values in this study from Frasnian–Famennian boundary and lower Famennian strata (between 0.4 and 0.5) to those from North American stratigraphic equivalents suggests that the 187Os/188Os values record global trends. These findings support a causal relationship between increased continental weathering (and thus, nutrient supply to the marine shelf) and the environmental perturbations that occurred during numerous Late Devonian events, including both of the biospherically catastrophic Kellwasser crises as well as other, less severe, oceanic anoxic events.

  • Subscribe Collection to subscribe to Journal of the Geological Society or the Lyellhereclick Notes
    2016
    Co-Authors: Michael T Whalen, Daizhao Chen, Grzegorz Racki, Jianguo Wang, Chengyuan Wang
    Abstract:

    Famennian transition of the Late Devonian−Frasnian Large sulphur isotopic perturbations and oceanic changes during the service Email alerting to receive free e-mail alerts when new articles cite this article hereclick reques

  • the astronomical rhythm of late devonian climate change kowala section holy cross mountains poland
    Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2013
    Co-Authors: David De Vleeschouwer, David P G Bond, Grzegorz Racki, Michal Rakocinski, Katarzyna Sobien, Philippe Claeys
    Abstract:

    Rhythmical alternations between limestone and shales or marls characterize the famous Kowala section, Holy Cross Mountains, Poland. Two intervals of this section were studied for evidence of orbital cyclostratigraphy. The oldest interval spans the Frasnian–Famennian boundary, deposited under one of the hottest greenhouse climates of the Phanerozoic. The youngest interval encompasses the Devonian– Carboniferous (D–C) boundary, a pivotal moment in Earth’s climatic history that saw a transition from greenhouse to icehouse. For the Frasnian–Famennian sequence, lithological variations are consistent with 405-kyr and 100-kyr eccentricity forcing and a cyclostratigraphic floating time-scale is presented. The interpretation of observed lithological rhythms as eccentricity cycles is confirmed by amplitude modulation patterns in agreement with astronomical theory and by the recognition of precession cycles in high-resolution stable isotope records. The resulting relative time-scale suggests that � 800 kyr separate the Lower and Upper Kellwasser Events (LKE and UKE, respectively), two periods of anoxia that culminated in massive biodiversity loss at the end of the Frasnian. Th/U and pyrite framboid analyses indicate that during the UKE, oxygen levels remained low for 400 kyr and d 13 C org measure

  • facies and geochemistry across the early middle Frasnian transition late devonian on south china carbonate shelf comparison with the polish reference succession
    Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 2008
    Co-Authors: Chengyuan Wang, Grzegorz Racki, Maria Racka
    Abstract:

    Abstract Dongcun and Longmen are two important reference sections for the study of the Frasnian carbonate platform of Guangxi (southern South China). At the Dongcun section, conodonts recovered in the present study provide a robust biostratigraphic framework for the Lower–Middle Frasnian interval. The studied interval (uppermost Givetian to Middle Frasnian basal Palmatolepis hassi Zone) is characterized by repeated shallower and deeper water deposits, but the cyclic depositional trend was mainly deepening upward. Carbon isotopic investigation of bulk samples recognizes a major, four-step perturbation across the Lower–Middle Frasnian boundary, which is also evident in the Holy Cross Mountains (Poland). The pattern is reinforced by correlative organic carbon isotopic secular trends from the reference Polish sections: a prominent long-lasting increase in δ13Ccarb up to 4.5‰ (event III) is evident in the Palmatolepis punctata Zone, but is preceded and followed by rapid negative shifts (events II and IV, respectively) to ca. 0‰; a weak incipient positive excursion (event I) is recognized in carbonate carbon only in the upper part of the Palmatolepis transitans Zone. In Chinese sections, different background isotopic values indicate decoupled, isotopically dissimilar, hydrothermally affected and mostly oxygenated water masses over the carbonate shelf, as shown by trace and rare earth elements. The shallower water, upslope, diagenetically unaltered Dongcun succession reveals lighter carbon isotopic ratios, on the order of 2‰, while the less densely sampled and less certainly dated, mostly muddy-siliceous Longmen downslope succession shows δ13Ccarb levels similar to those recorded worldwide. The onset of the bipartite event III is marked by 13C enrichment of 4.3‰ at Dongcun. Event IV, a light carbon excursion, is especially well recorded in the shallow-water facies by a 2.5‰ negative shift. The event I excursion in the transitans Zone is obscured, as in some Polish successions, but is probably recorded in organic carbon trends. Slight differences in timing and magnitude of the δ13Ccarb oscillations may originate from geochemical decoupling between the open ocean and the tectonically active, morphologically differentiated epeiric basins. Nevertheless, a global extent for this major punctata Event is clear from the similar biogeochemical signals recorded on the distantly separated south Laurussian and South China shelves.

  • chapter 8productivity and bottom water redox conditions at the Frasnian famennian boundary on both sides of the eovariscan belt constraints from trace element geochemistry
    Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, 2005
    Co-Authors: Laurent Riquier, Michael M Joachimski, Grzegorz Racki, Olivier Averbuch, Nicolas Tribovillard, Xavier Devleeschouwer, Abderrazzak El Albani, Armelle Riboulleau
    Abstract:

    Abtract The Late Devonian Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) mass extinction event coincides in many places with the depositionof C org -rich “Kellwasser” facies. Four F-F boundary sections representative of platform and basin environments from widely separated locations (Morocco, Germany, and France) were analysed for inorganic geochemistry, especially trace elements (redox and productivity proxies), in order to describe paleodepositional environments for the Kellwasser horizons. Ni/Co, V/Cr, U/Th, and V/(V+Ni) ratios, as well as redox trace metal concentrations indicate that oxygen-depleted conditions existed during the times of Kellwasser facies deposition. In platform settings, dysoxic conditions seem to be limited to the Late Frasnian. In basinal settings, oxygen depletion was stronger and persisted into the Early Famennian. Enrichments of Ba, Cu, Ni, that are limited to the Late Frasnian, show that surface productivity was relatively high and organic matter could accumulate, especially in the deeper environments. The stratigraphical distribution of several geochemical markers are linked with two positive excursions of the δ 13 C carb signal that result from enhanced organic matter burial. Reducing conditions likely resulted from high productivity of Late Devonian marine ecosystems. Intense nutrient supply resulted probably from the biogeochemical recycling of nutrients, and/or runoff from emerged lands. Coupled with other factors, such as rapid sea-level fluctuations and climatic changes, oxygen-depleted conditions and eutrophication would have modified Late Devonian environments and could be possible factors in the F-F mass mortality.