Browsing by Author "Lauckner, Liam"
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Item An Investigation of Cerium Anomalies in the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway(2018-10-18) Lauckner, LiamAlthough marine anoxia was widespread during Cretaceous ocean anoxic events, the abundance of fossils and evidence for bioturbation in Cenomanian-Turonian shales from the Iona-1 core suggest portions of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway (KWIS) were in fact oxic during Ocean Anoxic Event 2 (OAE-2). In the same core the section corresponding with the Mid-Cenomanian Event (MCE), a precursor to OAE-2, is presumed to have been deposited under anoxic conditions, based on observations of a high organic matter content and a low fossil count. At present no quantitative measure of seawater oxygenation during the MCE exists for the KWIS, and the reasons for the presumed disparate oxygenation histories of the MCE and OAE-2 are uncertain. Here we present a reconstruction of seawater rare earth element (REE) abundances for a 12-m-long segment of the Iona-1 core, which includes the MCE. The carbonate fractions of our shales were dissolved and purified in the TIMS-group clean lab facilities in the Earth and Atmospheric Science department of the University of Houston, and the department’s QQQ ICP-MS was used to measure the abundances of REEs in the resulting solutions. A trend of negative cerium anomalies – depletions in Ce relative to the other REEs – across the MCE may reflect low dissolved oxygen seawater conditions, which would confirm the hypothesis that the KWIS was anoxic during the MCE. Further study of the isotopes of neodymium, another of the REEs, may elucidate paleo ocean circulation patterns that could explain the oxygenation histories of both the MCE and OAE-2.Item Osmium Isotope Chemostratigraphy of the Mid-Cenomanian Event in the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway(2017-10-12) Lauckner, LiamItem THE UNEXPECTED 1870s/1880s RESPONSE TO THE MID-CENOMANIAN EVENT: AN INVESTIGATION IN THE IONA-1 CORE(2018-12) Lauckner, LiamThe emplacement of either the Caribbean Large Igneous Province (CLIP) or High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP) is implicated in the triggering of the CenomanianTuronian Ocean Anoxic Event 2 (OAE-2; ca 94 - 95 Ma). Evidence for a similar initiation mechanism for the Mid-Cenomanian Event (MCE; ca 96.5 Ma), a precursor to OAE-2 during which comparable environmental conditions persisted, is contradictory or absent. In this study, a reconstruction of mid-Cenomanian seawater 187Os/188Os from the Iona-1 core, SW Texas, the first for the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway, tests the role of LIP activity in triggering the MCE. The absence of a prolonged unradiogenic Os-isotope excursion (low 187Os/188Os) during the MCE interval argues against CLIP involvement in the event's initiation. Instead, the coincidence of a muted unradiogenic Os-isotope excursion and elevated Hg concentrations with published 40Ar39Ar ages of 96.4 Ma of basalts from Ellesmere Island, Canada, suggests HALIP-related volcanic activity may have precipitated the MCE. In addition, the correlation of a pronounced radiogenic Os-isotope excursion (high 187Os/188Os) between Iona-1 and previous measurements from the English Chalk, Eastbourne, England, provides evidence for elevated pCO2, an accelerated global hydrologic cycle and increased continental weathering rates -- conditions known to exist during OAE-2 but previously only postulated for the MCE.