Astrochronology of the Sinemurian Stage from the Llanbedr (Mochras Farm) core, NW Wales: Implications for the Early Jurassic timescale

Authors

  • Alexander J.L. Hudson Camborne School of Mines, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall TR13 0DB
  • Stephen P. Hesselbo Camborne School of Mines, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall TR13 0DB; Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall TR13 0DB
  • Linda A. Hinnov Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030
  • Kate Littler Camborne School of Mines, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall TR13 0DB; Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall TR13 0DB
  • Kevin N. Page Camborne School of Mines, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall TR13 0DB; Geodiversity & Heritage, Thornedges, Sandford, Crediton, Devon, EX174BR
  • James B. Riding Geodiversity & Heritage, Thornedges, Sandford, Crediton, Devon, EX174BR
  • Micha Ruhl Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, College Green, Dublin
  • Clemens V. Ullmann Camborne School of Mines, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall TR13 0DB; Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall TR13 0DB

Keywords:

Jurassic, Sinemurian, astrochronology, calcium content

Abstract

Early Jurassic palaeoenvironments were perturbed during episodes of major global climate and biogeochemical change at the Triassic–Jurassic boundary and Early Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE). Other poorly understood palaeoclimate fluctuations and carbon-cycle perturbations occurred between these episodes, including the mid-Sinemurian Liasidium Event and the Sinemurian–Pliensbachian Boundary Event. Understanding of the causes and significance of these phenomena is limited by uncertainties in the geological timescale, particularly for the Sinemurian Stage. In this paper we present new multiproxy geochemical data through the Sinemurian and earliest Pliensbachian stages from the Llanbedr (Mochras Farm) borehole (NW Wales). The Mochras record is apparently stratigraphically complete except in the Upper Sinemurian which is affected by a normal fault that removes the lower part of the Oxynotum Zone. A floating astrochronology is developed for the Sinemurian Stage based on identification of the 405-kyr orbital eccentricity “metronome” in weight percent calcium and stable organic carbon isotopes (δ13Corg) from Mochras, together with data from the Robin Hood’s Bay base-Pliensbachian GSSP section in Yorkshire, UK. The results indicate a minimum duration for the Sinemurian Stage of 7.3 Myr (7.1 Myr from Mochras and an additional 0.2 Myr from Robin Hood’s Bay for the lower Oxynotum Zone). This interpretation of a long Sinemurian requires a short duration (~2 Myr) for the Hettangian stage.

Downloads

Published

2025-06-27

Issue

Section

Articles