The organic carbon distribution in Mesozoic marine sediments and the influence of orbital climatic cycles (England and the western North Atlantic)

The distribution of organic carbon in marine sediments is commonly characterized by cyclicity at different time scales. Analysis of such cyclicity in case studies of Liassic and Kimmeridgian age in England and of Cenomanian age in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean shows that specific processes playing at different time scales (large-scale and small-scale) control the storage of organic matter. A consequence of the orbitally induced climatic/oceanographic control of high-frequency sedimentary cycles is that it has a regional (to worldwide) expression, and is thus a powerful tool to reconstruct basin in-fill patterns and to establish detailed correlations between basinal (source rock) and margin (reservoir) successions. Once established, a high-resolution framework provides the necessary stratigraphic control for detailed geochemical studies. -from Authors