scholarly journals Upper Arenig trilobite biostratigraphy and sea-level changes at Lynna River near Volkhov, Russia

2003 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 105-114
Author(s):  
T. Hansen ◽  
A.T. Nielsen

Over 5000 trilobites have been collected from Lower Ordovician rocks exposed at the Lynna River in the Volkhov region, east of St. Petersburg, Russia. Bed-by-bed sampling has been carried out through the upper part of Volkhov Formation (top of Jeltiaki Member and the entire Frizy Member), the Lynna Formation and the basal part of the Obukhovo Formation. This interval, which is 7.5 metres thick, correlates with the upper part of the Arenig Series, and presumably even ranges into the very base of the Llanvirn. A preliminary biostratigraphical investigation of top Jeltiaki Member (BIIβ), Frizy Member (BIIγ) and basal Lynna Formation (BIIIα) reveals a rather continuous faunal turnover lacking sharp boundaries, and the biostratigraphical zonation (BIIβ–BIIIα) is primarily defined by the index trilobite taxa. The trilobite ranges are generally in agreement with the pattern described by Schmidt in 1907. The abundance ratio between Asaphus and the ptychopygids seems to be related to changes in relative sea level with Asaphus preferring the most shallow water conditions. A tentative interpretation of sea-level changes suggests an initial drowning at the base of BIIγ, immediately followed by a lowstand that in turn was succeeded by a moderate sea-level rise and then a significant fall. The last marks the BIIγ/BIIIα boundary. Correlation with sections in Scandinavia suggests that the basal part of BIIγ is strongly condensed.

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 403-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karem Azmy ◽  
Denis Lavoie

The Lower Ordovician St. George Group of western Newfoundland consists mainly of shallow-marine-platform carbonates (∼500 m thick). It is formed, from bottom to top, of the Watts Bight, Boat Harbour, Catoche, and Aguathuna formations. The top boundary of the group is marked by the regional St. George Unconformity. Outcrops and a few cores from western Newfoundland were sampled at high resolution and the extracted micritic materials were investigated for their petrographic and geochemical criteria to evaluate their degree of preservation. The δ13C and δ18O values of well-preserved micrite microsamples range from –4.2‰ to 0‰ (VPDB) and from –11.3‰ to –2.9‰ (VPDB), respectively. The δ13Ccarb profile of the St. George Group carbonates reveals several negative shifts, which vary between ∼2‰ and 3‰ and are generally associated with unconformities–disconformities or thin shale interbeds, thus reflecting the effect of or link with significant sea-level changes. The St. George Unconformity is associated with a negative δ13Ccarb shift (∼2‰) on the profile and correlated with major lowstand (around the end of Arenig) on the local sea-level reconstruction and also on those from the Baltic region and central Australia, thus suggesting that the St. George Group Unconformity might have likely had an eustatic component that contributed to the development–enhancement of the paleomargin. Other similar δ13Ccarb shifts have been recorded on the St. George profile, but it is hard to evaluate their global extension due to the low resolution of the documented global Lower Ordovician (Tremadoc – middle Arenig) δ13Ccarb profile.


1979 ◽  
Vol 24 (90) ◽  
pp. 213-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig S. Lingle ◽  
James A. Clark

AbstractThe Antarctic ice sheet has been reconstructed at 18000 years b.p. by Hughes and others (in press) using an ice-flow model. The volume of the portion of this reconstruction which contributed to a rise of post-glacial eustatic sea-level has been calculated and found to be (9.8±1.5) × 106 km3. This volume is equivalent to 25±4 m of eustatic sea-level rise, defined as the volume of water added to the ocean divided by ocean area. The total volume of the reconstructed Antarctic ice sheet was found to be (37±6) × 106 km3. If the results of Hughes and others are correct, Antarctica was the second largest contributor to post-glacial eustatic sea-level rise after the Laurentide ice sheet. The Farrell and Clark (1976) model for computation of the relative sea-level changes caused by changes in ice and water loading on a visco-elastic Earth has been applied to the ice-sheet reconstruction, and the results have been combined with the changes in relative sea-level caused by Northern Hemisphere deglaciation as previously calculated by Clark and others (1978). Three families of curves have been compiled, showing calculated relative sea-level change at different times near the margin of the possibly unstable West Antarctic ice sheet in the Ross Sea, Pine Island Bay, and the Weddell Sea. The curves suggest that the West Antarctic ice sheet remained grounded to the edge of the continental shelf until c. 13000 years b.p., when the rate of sea-level rise due to northern ice disintegration became sufficient to dominate emergence near the margin predicted otherwise to have been caused by shrinkage of the Antarctic ice mass. In addition, the curves suggest that falling relative sea-levels played a significant role in slowing and, perhaps, reversing retreat when grounding lines approached their present positions in the Ross and Weddell Seas. A predicted fall of relative sea-level beneath the central Ross Ice Shelf of as much as 23 m during the past 2000 years is found to be compatible with recent field evidence that the ice shelf is thickening in the south-east quadrant.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nevin Avşar ◽  
Şenol Kutoğlu

Global mean sea level has been rising at an increasing rate, especially since the early 19th century in response to ocean thermal expansion and ice sheet melting. The possible consequences of sea level rise pose a significant threat to coastal cities, inhabitants, infrastructure, wetlands, ecosystems, and beaches. Sea level changes are not geographically uniform. This study focuses on present-day sea level changes in the Black Sea using satellite altimetry and tide gauge data. The multi-mission gridded satellite altimetry data from January 1993 to May 2017 indicated a mean rate of sea level rise of 2.5 ± 0.5 mm/year over the entire Black Sea. However, when considering the dominant cycles of the Black Sea level time series, an apparent (significant) variation was seen until 2014, and the rise in the mean sea level has been estimated at about 3.2 ± 0.6 mm/year. Coastal sea level, which was assessed using the available data from 12 tide gauge stations, has generally risen (except for the Bourgas Station). For instance, from the western coast to the southern coast of the Black Sea, in Constantza, Sevastopol, Tuapse, Batumi, Trabzon, Amasra, Sile, and Igneada, the relative rise was 3.02, 1.56, 2.92, 3.52, 2.33, 3.43, 5.03, and 6.94 mm/year, respectively, for varying periods over 1922–2014. The highest and lowest rises in the mean level of the Black Sea were in Poti (7.01 mm/year) and in Varna (1.53 mm/year), respectively. Measurements from six Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations, which are very close to the tide gauges, also suggest that there were significant vertical land movements at some tide gauge locations. This study confirmed that according to the obtained average annual phase value of sea level observations, seasonal sea level variations in the Black Sea reach their maximum annual amplitude in May–June.


1999 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.Roland Gehrels

A relative sea-level history is reconstructed for Machiasport, Maine, spanning the past 6000 calendar year and combining two different methods. The first method establishes the long-term (103 yr) trend of sea-level rise by dating the base of the Holocene saltmarsh peat overlying a Pleistocene substrate. The second method uses detailed analyses of the foraminiferal stratigraphy of two saltmarsh peat cores to quantify fluctuations superimposed on the long-term trend. The indicative meaning of the peat (the height at which the peat was deposited relative to mean tide level) is calculated by a transfer function based on vertical distributions of modern foraminiferal assemblages. The chronology is determined from AMS 14C dates on saltmarsh plant fragments embedded in the peat. The combination of the two different approaches produces a high-resolution, replicable sea-level record, which takes into account the autocompaction of the peat sequence. Long-term mean rates of sea-level rise, corrected for changes in tidal range, are 0.75 mm/yr between 6000 and 1500 cal yr B.P. and 0.43 mm/yr during the past 1500 year. The foraminiferal stratigraphy reveals several low-amplitude fluctuations during a relatively stable period between 1100 and 400 cal yr B.P., and a sea-level rise of 0.5 m during the past 300 year.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhicheng Yang ◽  
Sonia Silvestri ◽  
Marco Marani ◽  
Andrea D’Alpaos

<p>Salt marshes are biogeomorphic systems that provide important ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and prevention of coastal erosion. These ecosystems are, however, threatened by increasing sea levels and human pressure. Improving current knowledge of salt-marsh response to changes in the environmental forcing is a key step to understand and predict salt-marsh evolution, especially under accelerated sea level rise scenarios and increasing human pressure. Towards this goal, we have analyzed field observations of marsh topographic changes and halophytic vegetation distribution with elevation collected over 20 years (between 2000 and 2019) in a representative marsh in the Venice lagoon (Italy).</p><p>Our results suggest that: 1) on average, marsh elevation with respect to local mean sea level decreased , (i.e. the surface accretion rate was lower than the rate of sea level rise); 2) elevational frequency distributions are characteristic for different halophytic vegetation species, highlighting different ecological realized niches that change in time; 3) although the preferential elevations at which different species have changed in time, the sequence of vegetation species with increasing soil elevation was preserved and simply shifted upward; 4) we observed different vegetation migration rates for the different species, suggesting that the migration process is species-specific. In particular, vegetation species colonizing marsh edges (Juncus and Inula) migrated faster facing to changes in sea levels than Limonium and Spartina , while Sarcocornia was characterized by delayed migration in response to sea level changes. These results bear significant implications for long-term biogeomorphic evolution of tidal environments.</p>


2013 ◽  
Vol 87 (5) ◽  
pp. 804-817 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Westrop ◽  
Jonathan M. Adrain

The first records of the upper Cambrian agnostoid generaKormagnostella, E. Romanenko,inRomanenko and Romanenko, 1967, andBiciragnostusF. Ergaliev,inEraliev and Ergaliev, 2001, in Laurentian North America are from a narrow stratigraphic interval in the Steptoean–Sunwaptan boundary interval (Furongian, Jiangshanian) of Nevada and Utah. In Nevada, both genera occur in a condensed bioclastic lag below a major flooding surface, andKormagnostellaalso appears in a transgressive interval in Utah. Immigration of these genera is associated with sea level rise, and also with faunal turnover.Biciragnostusis confined to the latestElviniaZone, immediately below the onset of a trilobite and agnostoid extinction event at the base of theIrvingella majorZone (basal Sunwaptan).Kormagnostellais present in the latestElviniaZone, and has its highest occurrence in theI. majorZone. Stratigraphic data from the Karatau-Naryn Terrane, Kazakhstan indicate that both genera disappear near the local extinction ofIrvingella, suggesting that faunal turnover in that region may have been broadly correlative with the more profound extinction in Laurentia. New species areKormagnostella advena,K. insolitaandBiciragnostus viator.


2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
pp. 678-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
ED Landing ◽  
Richard A. Fortey

The Chesley Drive Group, an Upper Cambrian-Lower Ordovician mudstone-dominated unit, is part of the Ediacaran–Ordovician cover sequence on the North American part of the Avalon microcontinent. The upper Chesley Drive Group on McLeod Brook, Cape Breton Island (previously “McLeod Brook Formation”), has two lithofacies-specific Tremadocian biotas. An older low-diversity benthic assemblage (shallow burrowers, Bathysiphon, phosphatic brachiopods, asaphid trilobites) is in lower upper Tremadocian green-gray mudstone. This wave-influenced, slightly dysoxic facies has Bathysiphon–brachiopod shell lags in ripple troughs. The upper fauna (ca. 483 +/- 1 Ma) is in dysoxic-anoxic (d-a), unburrowed, dark gray-black, upper upper (but not uppermost) Tremadocian mudstone with a “mass kill” of the olenid Peltocare rotundifrons (Matthew)—a provincial trilobite in Avalonian North America that likely tolerated low oxygen bottom waters. Scandodus avalonensis Landing n. sp. and Lagenochitina aff. conifundus (Poumot), probable nektic elements and the first upper Tremadocian conodont and chitinozoan reported from Avalon, occur in diagenetic calcareous nodules in the dark gray-black mudstone. An upper Tremadocian transition from lower greenish to upper black mudstone is not exposed on McLeod Brook, but is comparable to a coeval green-black mudstone transition in Avalonian England. The successions suggest that late late Tremadocian (probable Baltic Hunnebergian Age) sea level was higher in Avalon than is suggested from successions on other paleocontinents. The Tremadocian sea-level history of Avalon was a shoaling-deepening-shoaling sequence from d-a black mudstone (lower Tremadocian), to dysoxic green mudstone (lower upper Tremadocian), and back to black mudstone (upper upper Tremadocian).Scandodus Lindström is emended, with the early species S. avalonensis Landing n. sp. assigned to the emended Family Protopanderodontidae. Triangulodus Van Wamel is considered a junior synonym of Scandodus. Peltocare rotundifrons is emended on the basis of complete specimens.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-François Legeais ◽  
Benoît Meyssignac ◽  
Yannice Faugère ◽  
Adrien Guerou ◽  
Michaël Ablain ◽  
...  

It is essential to monitor accurately current sea level changes to better understand and project future sea level rise (SLR). This is the basis to support the design of adaptation strategies to climate change. Altimeter sea level products are operationally produced and distributed by the E.U. Copernicus services dedicated to the marine environment (CMEMS) and climate change (C3S). The present article is a review paper that intends to explain why and to which extent the sea level monitoring indicators derived from these products are appropriate to develop adaptation strategies to SLR. We first present the main key scientific questions and challenges related to SLR monitoring. The different processing steps of the altimeter production system are presented including those ensuring the quality and the stability of the sea level record (starting in 1993). Due to the numerous altimeter algorithms required for the production, it is complex to ensure both the retrieval of high-resolution mesoscale signals and the stability of the large-scale wavelengths. This has led to the operational production of two different sea level datasets whose specificities are characterized. We present the corresponding indicators: the global mean sea level (GMSL) evolution and the regional map of sea level trends, with their respective uncertainties. We discuss how these products and associated indicators support adaptation to SLR, and we illustrate with an example of downstream application. The remaining gaps are analyzed and recommendations for the future are provided.


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