24th LAK 2017 Heidelberg Abstracts 44

TALK: CENOMANIANCONIACIAN (CRETACEOUS) FORAMINIFERAL AND

AMMONITE BIOSTRATIGRAPHIC RECORD AND PALAEOCEANOGRAPHIC
EVENTS OF THE SERGIPE BASIN, NORTHEASTERN BRAZIL AN
OVERVIEW

Eduardo A. M. Koutsoukos1 and Peter Bengtson2

1: Institut fr Geowissenschaften, Universitt Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 234, 69120 Heidelberg,

Deutschland.
Eduardo.Koutsoukos@geow.uni-heidelberg.de; Peter.Bengtson@geow.uni-heidelberg.de

The Cenomanianlower Coniacian deposits of the Sergipe Basin, the Cotinguiba For-
mation, are represented by deep-water, fine-grained carbonates of a carbonate-ramp sys-
tem. It is the only known exposed succession of this time interval along the western South
Atlantic margin and therefore of key importance to a better understanding of its evolution at
low latitudes during the mid-Cretaceous.
Integration of foraminiferal and ammonite biostratigraphic data, coupled with an assessment
of their biogeographic patterns, has contributed to reconstructing the sequence of major pa-
laeoceanographic events.
The relatively equable, warm climate coupled with enhanced rates of evaporation at low
lati-tudes and restricted physiography in the deep basins (semi-restricted basinal setting)
largely contributed to restraining bottom-water circulation. This led to periodic development
of stable salinity-stratified water masses and induced oxygen depletion at the seafloor with
development of a widespread oxygen minimum layer throughout most of the Cenomanian
Turonian interval. A deepening episode in the earliest Cenomanian was represented by
abundant planktic fo-raminifera (pustulose/rugose hedbergellid morphotypes, rotaliporids
and planomalinids), an im-poverished low-diversity benthic microfauna (testimony to the
harsh oxygen-depleted bottom conditions), and a well-diversified ammonite assemblage
characterized by the mantelliceratines Graysonites and Sharpeiceras. A further major deep-
ening episode occurred in the latest Ceno-manianearly Turonian, coupled with widespread
dysaerobic to quasi-anaerobic bottom envi-ronments in the outer shelf to upper slope (as-
sociated with the well-known OAE-2, a globally recorded dysoxicanoxic event), repre-
sented by abundant and well-diversified ammonite as-semblages of the local Euompha-
loceras septemseriatum and Vascoceras harttii zones, together with abundant but low-di-
versified planktic foraminifera and a variable benthic assemblage, mostly represented by
morphotypes typical of epifaunal and infaunal deposit feeders. Progressive shallowing con-
ditions prevailed from early-middle Turonian to early Coniacian times, cou-pled with more
oxidized bottom-water conditions, probably as a consequence of less restricted oceanic
circulation patterns between the equatorial and South Atlantic oceans. Large (ca. 650
680 m in maximum diameter), keeled planktic foraminifera (globotruncanids), deep-water
dwellers, are occasionally recorded. Their occurrence is a further indication of not only wan-
ing low-oxygen conditions across the shelf and upper slope settings, but also of the pro-
gressive establishment of a more effective physiographic and oceanographic connection
between the North and South Atlantic since earlymiddle Turonian times.
Sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (http://www.humboldt-founda-
tion.de), which is gratefully acknowledged.
 GAEA
G A E A heidelbergensis 20

h e i d e l b e r g e n s i s

24th Colloquium on
Latin American Earth Sciences
Bertil Mchtle, Ingmar Holzhauer, Christina Ifrim,
Wolfgang Stinnesbeck & Ulrich A. Glasmacher
24th Colloquium on Latin American Earth Sciences, Heidelberg, 5.8.4.2017

HEIDELBERG CENTER

20
FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

HCE HEIDELBERG CENTER

GEOGRAPHISCHES
FOR INSTITUT
THE ENVIRONMENT

INSTITUT FR
GEOWISSENSCHAFTEN