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Tethyan-to-boreal correlation in the Kimmeridgian using high-resolution sequence stratigraphy (Vocontian Basin, Swiss Jura, Boulonnais, Dorset)

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Abstract

Ammonite biostratigraphy plays a central role in the definition of Jurassic stratigraphy. Nevertheless, the strong provincialism of European ammonite species during the Kimmeridgian is a long-standing problem in correlation attempts between the boreal and Tethyan faunal realms. Moreover, the sequence-stratigraphic interpretations for northern and southern Europe given in the Jurassic chronostratigraphic chart of Hardenbol et al. in SEPM Publ. 60 (chart) (1998) are different. The present study aims to resolve this correlation problem in order to better understand the connections between the boreal and the Tethyan realms during the Kimmeridgian. A sedimentological and high-resolution sequence-stratigraphic interpretation is presented for two unpublished sections (Cras d’Hermont and Roche de Mars) in the northern Swiss Jura, where recently discovered ammonites display both boreal and Tethyan influences. Then, these sections are correlated with the same time interval in the central Swiss Jura and Vocontian Basin, which belong to the Tethyan realm. Lastly, a long-distance transect is constructed between the Vocontian Basin, Swiss Jura, northern France, and southern England, the last two areas being part of the sub-boreal realm. The main results of this work are that: (1) third-order depositional sequences, and also higher-frequency sequences, can be correlated from the Tethyan to the boreal realm; (2) the sequence-stratigraphic interpretation given by Hardenbol et al. in SEPM Publ 60 (chart) (1998) for northern Europe seems to be accurate and agrees with the sequence-stratigraphic framework established in the Swiss Jura; (3) the Late Kimmeridgian of the Swiss Jura displays boreal influences; (4) integrated high-resolution sequence-stratigraphic and cyclostratigraphic studies are a valuable approach for bridging the correlation gap between northern and southern Europe.

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Acknowledgments

This study results from a year of postdoctoral research of Claude Colombié at the Earth Sciences department of the University of Oxford, which was financially supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Project No 81FR-68839). Claude Colombié gratefully acknowledges Stephen Hesselbo for receiving her in Oxford and sharing his precious time for paper reviews and discussions. We thank Helen Morgans-Bell for useful information on the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of southern England, and François Baudin for providing unpublished data from the Kimmeridgian of the Boulonnais. We also thank the Section de Paléontologie in Porrentruy, Switzerland, and particularly Wolfgang Hug, for deliberately sharing some essential information. Stephen, François, and Fabienne Giraud from the UMR CNRS 5125 of the University of Lyon 1 and Adrian Immenhauser from the Ruhr-University Bochum gave many helpful comments. Andrea Cozzi and Helmut Weissert provided constructive reviews. They all greatly helped to improve earlier versions of the manuscript. And last, but not least, a warm “thank you” goes to André Strasser for everything we were allowed to learn and experience during the years as his Ph.D. students.

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  1. N. Rameil

    Present address: Institute for Geology, Mineralogy and Geophysics, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, 44801, Bochum, Germany

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  1. UMR CNRS 5125 PEPS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Domaine Scientifique de La Doua, bât. Géode, 2 rue Raphaël Dubois, 69622, Villeurbanne Cedex, France

    C. Colombié

  2. Département de Géosciences—Géologie et Paléontologie, Université de Fribourg, Pérolles, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland

    N. Rameil

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Colombié, C., Rameil, N. Tethyan-to-boreal correlation in the Kimmeridgian using high-resolution sequence stratigraphy (Vocontian Basin, Swiss Jura, Boulonnais, Dorset). Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 96, 567–591 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-006-0117-3

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