Towards disentangling climatic and tectonic changes of southernmost Africa using strontium isotope stratigraphy and clumped isotope thermometry

Upper Cretaceous-Cenozoic marine sequences preserved between 30 and 350 masl across southern South Africa record a complex history of climatic and tectonic changes. In this study, we measure the strontium (Sr) isotope composition of fossil shark teeth, echinoderms, corals and oyster shells to chronostratigraphically constrain the ages of these sequences. The method requires careful petrographic screening and micro-drilling of the samples to avoid possible alteration by diagenesis. To assess palaeoenvironmental effects in the shells we measured the Mg/Ca elemental ratios and O isotope values using electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). In addition, we employed carbonate clumped isotope thermometry to test palaeotemperatures reconstruction. The analysis of recent to modern stromatolites by clumped isotopes yields an average temperature of 20.2°C, in agreement with present day observations. The fossil oyster shells suggest a warmer (23.0°C) seawater palaeotemperature, possibly due to major deglaciation and sea-level rise during the Neogene. We also find that transgressions occurred above 200 to 350 m elevation during: 1) the Campanian-Maastrichian (~75 Ma); 2) the mid-Oligocene (32 to 26 Ma); and 3) the Messinian-Zanclean (6 to 5 Ma). These three episodes are linked to well-known variations in global sea level and regional tectonic processes that could have affected the continental margin differently. The most recent transgression coincides with a maximum global sea-level rise of ~50 m at ca. 5.3 Ma, and a worldwide plate kinematic change around 6 Ma, which in Eurasia led to the closure of the Mediterranean Sea. In the Eastern Cape of South Africa, the new dates of analyzed oyster shells constrain a minimum uplift rate of ca. 150 m/Myr during this tectonic activity. The results have important implications for robust calibration of relative sea level in southern Africa.

Higher than present global mean sea level recorded by an Early Pliocene intertidal unit in Patagonia (Argentina)

Reconstructions of global mean sea level from earlier warm periods in Earth’s history can help constrain future projections of sea level rise. Here we report on the sedimentology and age of a geological unit in central Patagonia, Argentina, that we dated to the Early Pliocene (4.69–5.23 Ma, 2σ) with strontium isotope stratigraphy. The unit was interpreted as representative of an intertidal environment, and its elevation was measured with differential GPS at ca. 36 m above present-day sea level. Considering modern tidal ranges, it was possible to constrain paleo relative sea level within ±2.7 m (1σ). We use glacial isostatic adjustment models and estimates of vertical land movement to calculate that, when the Camarones intertidal sequence was deposited, global mean sea level was 28.4 ± 11.7 m (1σ) above present. This estimate matches those derived from analogous Early Pliocene sea level proxies in the Mediterranean Sea and South Africa. Evidence from these three locations indicates that Early Pliocene sea level may have exceeded 20m above its present level. Such high global mean sea level values imply an ice-free Greenland, a significant melting of West Antarctica, and a contribution of marine-based sectors of East Antarctica to global mean sea level.

Pliocene growth of the Dowlatabad syncline in Frontal Fars arc: Folding propagation across the Zagros Fold Belt, Iran

The integration of biostratigraphy, strontium isotope stratigraphy, and magnetostratigraphy allowed for the precise dating of the >3.0-km-thick marine to non-marine foreland sedimentary succession within the Dowlatabad growth syncline along the Frontal Fars arc in the Zagros Fold Belt that extends from eastern Turkey to southern Iran. This area was the missing link to complete the dating of syntectonic deposits in the Fars arc and quantify the migration of sedimentary belts as well as the propagation of folding across the entire Mesopotamian foreland basin. Both are essential for defining the interplay of basin evolution and sequence of folding. Deposition of the foreland marine marls in the Mishan Formation started at ca. 11.5 Ma. The transition to a non-marine basin infill occurred at 4.9 Ma by the progradation of thick fluvial deposits of the Aghajari Formation with a fast accumulation rate of 63 cm/k.y. The beginning of growth strata deposition and thus the onset of folding in the Dowlatabad syncline is dated at 4.65 Ma. The first appearance of carbonate conglomerates sourced from the Guri limestone at 2.8 Ma marked the progressive dismantling of the nearby growing anticlines. The tectonic deformation in the front of the Fars arc was active for at least 2.85 m.y. and ceased at 1.8 Ma before the deposition of the discordant and slightly folded Bakhtyari conglomerates characterized by a clast composition derived from the Zagros hinterland. The compilation of magnetostratigraphic ages reveals that both the migration of the Aghajari-Bakhtyari sedimentary belts and the propagation of the folding front was in-sequence toward the foreland at a rate close to 20 mm/yr in the Fars arc and 15 mm/yr in the Lurestan arc, in the last 20 m.y. These high rates of folding propagation are about one order of magnitude larger than age equivalent shortening rates (∼4 mm/yr in Fars arc and ∼2 mm/yr in Lurestan arc) and thus imply an efficient detachment level at the base of the deformed Arabian sedimentary cover. Numerical experiments on both the cover and basement sequences are designed to test the influence of inherited basement structures on the deformation propagation within the cover sequence, providing clues on the partly coeval in-sequence deformation of the Zagros Simply Folded Belt and the local out-of-sequence Mountain Frontal Fault system as illustrated by regional and local geology.