Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (37) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Steuber, T. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Plate tectonic control on the evolution of Cretaceous platform- carbonate production

¹ Ruhr-Universität, Institut für Geologie, Mineralogie und Geophysik, Universitätsstrasse 150, D-44801 Bochum, Germany

Carbonate-producing biota on Cretaceous carbonate platforms changed from early Cretaceous aragonitic coral-algal and coral-rudist associations to Turonian-Maastrichtian calcite-dominated rudist associations. Abundance patterns of rudist bivalves examined from a large database show a shift from Barremian- Cenomanian aragonite-dominated to post-Cenomanian calcite- dominated shells. These skeletal-mineral changes agree with a decrease in the Mg/Ca ratio of seawater owing to high rates of production of oceanic crust during the Barremian–early Turonian and its effect on seawater saturation with respect to aragonite and calcite. Increasing Sr concentrations in biotic calcite from the Barremian to the Maastrichtian reflect the shift from aragonite-dominated to calcite-dominated platform sedimentation, because aragonite precipitation is a major sink for seawater Sr. It is speculated that a particularly low Mg/Ca ratio and the corresponding low supersaturation of seawater with respect to aragonite during the middle Cretaceous was a major cue for the radiation of calcite- dominated rudist bivalves, which became important carbonate producers on Turonian-Maastrichtian carbonate platforms. Changing Mg/Ca ratios of seawater are not considered to have caused middle Cretaceous crises in the evolution of carbonate platforms, but seawater composition could have selected for calcite-dominated biota when carbonate production resumed.

Key Words: Cretaceous • carbonate platforms • seawater • rudists • magnesium • strontium

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M.-V. GUILLEM, P. HALLOCK, and M. BRANDANO A DEPOSITIONAL MODEL AND PALEOECOLOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE LOWER TORTONIAN DISTALLY STEEPENED RAMP OF MENORCA (BALEARIC ISLANDS, SPAIN) Palaios, July 1, 2008; 23(7): 465 - 481. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. B. Ries, S. M. Stanley, and L. A. Hardie Scleractinian corals produce calcite, and grow more slowly, in artificial Cretaceous seawater Geology, July 1, 2006; 34(7): 525 - 528. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H. Weissert, H. Weissert, and E. Erba Volcanism, CO2 and palaeoclimate: a Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous carbon and oxygen isotope record Journal of the Geological Society, July 1, 2004; 161(4): 695 - 702. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. Steuber and J. Veizer Phanerozoic record of plate tectonic control of seawater chemistry and carbonate sedimentation Geology, December 1, 2002; 30(12): 1123 - 1126. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. Steuber, S. F. Mitchell, D. Buhl, G. Gunter, and H. U. Kasper Catastrophic extinction of Caribbean rudist bivalves at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary Geology, November 1, 2002; 30(11): 999 - 1002. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]