Project Details
Controls of carbon burial during the Lower Albian OAE 1b in the western Atlantic/western Tethys on Milankovitch time scales: Testing the climatic connection of tropical and subtropical areas as suggested by Mega-Monsoon-Hypothesis
Applicant
Dr. Peter Hofmann
Subject Area
Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
Term
from 2003 to 2007
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5410809
In this project we anticipate to test the proposed "super-sapropel stage" by Erbacher et al. (2001) at ODP Site 1049 in the north-eastern North Atlantic and further elaborated to the "Mega-Monsoon-Hypothesis" by Herrle (2002) and Herrle et al. (2003a+b) for the Lower Albian Oceanic Anoxic Event 1b. We propose to investigate climate related predictions of this model for two lacations from the tropical and subtropical climate zones - the Mazagan Plateau (MP) and the Vocontian Basin (VB) - i.e., upwelling conditions, wind strength, continental runoff, organic matter productivity and water column oxygenation. We intent to generate continental and marine proxy records with a high time resolution... for both sections which will be linked via the global d13Ccar-stratigraphy. This time framework will allow to trace processes on the resolution of an individual precession cycle and can be utilized to investigate (i) the timing, causes and effects of changes in productivity and/or water-column anoxia/euxinia on massive organic carbon burial at each location, and, most important, to (ii) demonstrate the phasing of carbon burial in the tropical and sub-tropical climate belts of the eastern Atlantic and Western Tethys on one common time scale. The results of this project will not only allow to evaluate fundamentals of the Mega-Monsoon-Hypothesis, but also improve our understanding of the global climate behaviour during the Lower Albian.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
International Connection
Netherlands, United Kingdom
Participating Persons
Professor Dr. Stefan Schouten; Professor Dr. Thomas Wagner