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Stable isotope analyses of belemnites from the Kachchh Basin, western India: paleoclimatic implications for the Middle to Late Jurassic transition

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Abstract

Stable isotope analyses of 61 diagenetically unaltered belemnite rostra from the Middle to Late Jurassic of the Kachchh Basin of western India suggest stable paleotemperatures across the Callovian-Oxfordian boundary (~14°C). Only at the end of the Middle Oxfordian water temperatures drop for more than 3°C before reaching again higher values during the Kimmeridgian (~12.3°C). The data do not support polar glaciations proposed for the Middle to Late Jurassic transition, which necessarily would have led to a global temperature and sea-level minimum at the boundary. Callovian to Oxfordian rocks in the Kachchh Basin point to a gradual shallowing corresponding to a slight fall in relative sea level. However, the magnitude of this regression is comparatively small, and the sea-level minimum is reached in the late Early Oxfordian and not close to the boundary. Results from the Kachchh Basin therefore, imply almost stable climatic conditions during the Middle to Late Jurassic transition and do not show any evidence for polar glaciations.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Michael Joachimski, Daniele Lutz, and Ulrike Wacker for support with stable isotope analyses. Ramona Dotzler and Heike Schmidt helped in preparing the samples. Birgit Leipner-Mata prepared the thin-sections. Christian Schulbert and Patrick Chellouche assisted with taking photographs at the scanning electron microscope. John Huntley helped with statistics. Financial support has been granted by the German Research Society (FU 131/34-1). The manuscript has been improved following suggestions of an anonymous reviewer and the editor Andre Freiwald.

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  1. GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Fachgruppe PaläoUmwelt, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Loewenichstraße 28, 91054, Erlangen, Germany

    Matthias Alberti & Franz T. Fürsich

  2. Department of Geology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, 302004, India

    Dhirendra K. Pandey

  3. Department of Geology, Periyar University, Salem, 636011, India

    Mu. Ramkumar

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  1. Matthias Alberti
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Alberti, M., Fürsich, F.T., Pandey, D.K. et al. Stable isotope analyses of belemnites from the Kachchh Basin, western India: paleoclimatic implications for the Middle to Late Jurassic transition. Facies 58, 261–278 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-011-0278-9

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