Research article
Revising the timing and causes of the Urgonian rudistid-platform demise in the Mediterranean Tethys

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2020.103124Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Revision of the ammonite-age calibration of the final demise of the Urgonian rudistid-platform ecosystem

  • Reconsider the chronology of events and the causative mechanisms for the demise of the Urgonian Mediterranean platforms.

  • Glacio-eustasy is identified as the possible causative mechanism for the widespread emersive demise of Urgonian rudistid-platform ecosystem in the latest Barremian.

Abstract

The widespread demise of the Urgonian rudistid-platform ecosystem in the Mediterranean Tethys was so far considered as a progressive phenomenon starting at the Barremian–Aptian transition and culminating in the mid-early Aptian in concert with the Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE) 1a. The re-assignment of the final demise of the Urgonian-type peri-Vocontian rudistid platforms to the latest Barremian by means of ammonite biostratigraphy forces us to rethink the chronology of events and underlying causes. Re-examination of the best-documented platforms of the Mediterranean Tethys supports a large scale demise of the Urgonian rudist-dominated platforms in the latest Barremian, as demonstrated directly by ammonite occurrences and indirectly by correlations. In most cases, the last rudistid sequences, dominated by caprinid rudists of peri-Vocontian affinity, are topped by an exposure surface. Regional investigation reveals that the duration represented by the exposure surface depends on the regional geodynamics. While the hiatus straddles the middle part of the M. sarasini Zone (latest Barremian) in subsiding platforms, it is of greater duration in quiescent tectonic context spanning the upper M. sarasini Zone up to the D. forbesiD. deshayesi zones interval (late early Aptian). This exposure event is estimated to have lasted at least 1 Myr and may have resulted from a high-amplitude relative sea-level fall. It is here suggested that a short-lasted, global cooling phase and associated glacio-eustatic sea-level fall may have interrupted rudistid-platform ecosystem in the latest Barremian and subsequently led to hiatus development.

Introduction

Massive injection of volcanogenic CO2 and hydrothermal activity in response to the Greater Ontong-Java Event (GOJE in Taylor, 2006) have been considered as the starting points of both the drastic reduction of the Urgonian rudistid-platform biota and its replacement by massive orbitolinid occurrences in shallow-water carbonate platforms worldwide (Skelton and Gili, 2011; Föllmi, 2012; Stein et al., 2012a). This turnover is documented in the tropical to subtropical shallow-water settings of the northern and southern Tethys, and also along the margin of the Indian Realm and the western margin of the Pacific Coast (Stein et al., 2012a and references therein). The reported changes in the mode of neritic carbonate production are supposedly concomitant with transient perturbations in the ocean carbon cycle during the latest Barremian (Imerites giraudi and Martelites sarasini ammonite zones), as testified by the periodic deposition of organic-rich sediments referred to as the Taxy Episode of Environmental Change, ECC (Föllmi, 2012). The Taxy ECC was considered as the prelude of the Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE) 1a of mid-early Aptian age (Stein et al., 2011). The eustatic sea-level rise during the spreading and/or culmination of the OAE 1a would have subsequently triggered the drowning of the recovered Urgonian rudistid regime along the northern Mediterranean Tethys margin at, or close to, the transition between the Deshayesites forbesi and Deshayesites deshayesi ammonite zones – regardless of the previous ammonite zonations (Arnaud-Vanneau and Arnaud, 1990; Arnaud et al., 1998; Funk et al., 1993; Hunt and Tucker, 1993; Masse, 1993, Masse, 1995, Masse, 2003; Clavel et al., 2002, Clavel et al., 2007, Clavel et al., 2009, Clavel et al., 2013, Clavel et al., 2014; Wissler et al., 2003; Föllmi, 2008, Föllmi, 2012; Föllmi and Gainon, 2008; Föllmi et al., 1994, Föllmi et al., 2006, Föllmi et al., 2007, Föllmi et al., 2012; Embry et al., 2010; Godet et al., 2010; Huck et al., 2010, Huck et al., 2011, Huck et al., 2012, Huck et al., 2013, Huck et al., 2014, Huck et al., 2017; Huck and Heimhofer, 2015; Skelton and Gili, 2011; Stein et al., 2011, Stein et al., 2012a-b; Masse and Fenerci-Masse, 2011, Masse and Fenerci-Masse, 2013a-c; Masse et al., 2009; Léonide et al., 2012; Pictet et al., 2015, Pictet et al., 2016).

Studies conducted on the Urgonian-type, peri-Vocontian platforms of southeast France (Subalpine, Bas-Vivarais and Provence platforms) recently challenged this scenario (Frau et al., 2016, Frau et al., 2017, Frau et al., 2018a, Frau et al., 2018b; Tendil et al., 2018). Based on the recognition of regional-wide ammonite bioevents, the recovery of the rudistid biota, above orbitolinid mass-accumulation, is confirmed as being of latest Barremian age (lower M. sarasini Zone). The final demise of the Urgonian rudistid deposits is characterized by an exposure event. The hiatus is of minor duration in the subsiding context of the North Provence platform – spanning the middle part of the M. sarasini Zone – whereas it includes a longer time interval in most proximal settings – up to the upper D. forbesi Zone (Bas-Vivarais platform) or upper D. deshayesi Zone (Subalpine platform) (Frau et al., 2018b). The revised chronology emphasizes the stepwise demise of the Urgonian rudistid-platform ecosystem during the Taxy ECC rather than during the OAE 1a, and gives evidence for a relative sea-level fall as the main driver of the interruption in the peri-Vocontian rudistid platform carbonate production.

Re-examination of the literature further supports a late Barremian age for the demise of the Urgonian rudistid-platform regime throughout the Mediterranean Tethys. Underlying causes are discussed in the present contribution.

Section snippets

Material and methods

This work re-examines the best-documented, Barremian–Aptian platform series developed along the margins of the Mediterranean Tethys. These include, from west to east, the proto-North Atlantic Lusitanian platform of eastern Portugal, the Pre-Pyrenean Organyà platform of northern Spain, the Prebetic and Maestrat platforms of southern and eastern Spain, the peri-Vocontian platforms of southeastern France, the Helvetic platform of the North Swiss Alps, the Northern Apuseni platform of Romania and

Southeastern France (Fig. 2.1)

In southeastern France, the Vocontian Basin was bordered by extensive Urgonian-type rudistid platforms appearing at, or close to, the HauterivianBarremian transition, and whose maximum development occurred during the mid-early, early late and latest Barremian following the recent ammonite-age calibration revised by Frau et al., 2017, Frau et al., 2018b and Tendil et al. (2018). This is such a case for the northern (Subalpine), eastern (Bas-Vivarais) and southern (Provence) peri-Vocontian

The demise of the Mediterranean Urgonian platform: a large-scale phenomenon of late Barremian age

The extensive demise of the Urgonian rudistid-platform ecosystem in the Mediterranean Tethys was so far related to a major drowning event dated to, or close to, the OAE 1a time interval, i.e. D. forbesiD. deshayesi zonal transition (Huck et al., 2011 and references therein). After Huck et al., 2011, Huck et al., 2014, evidence for platform drowning predating the OAE 1a is found in both the coeval change from limestone- to marl-dominated sedimentary regimes in numerous peri-platform settings of

Conclusions

The final demise of the Urgonian rudistid-platform ecosystem in the Mediterranean Tethys is re-assigned to the latest Barremian by means of ammonite biostratigraphy. This significantly contrasts with previous work that considered this demise as a progressive phenomenon starting at the Barremian–Aptian transition and culminating in the mid-early Aptian. This new correlation framework forces us to reconsider the chronology of events and the causative mechanisms for the demise of the Urgonian

Acknowledgements

We wish to express our warmest thanks to Jean-Pierre Masse (Aix-Marseille Université), Philippe Fauré (Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Toulouse), Gérard Delanoy (Université de Nice Sofia Antipolis), José Manuel Castro Jiménez (Universidad de Jaén), and Josep A. Moreno-Bedmar (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) for their valuable discussions during the course of this work. This work benefits from photographs of age-diagnostic ammonites shared by Miguel Company (Universidad de Granada),

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