Palaeoenvironmental evolution of the Tunisian carbonate platform margin: Response to global oceanographic and climatic changes (Barremian-Aptian)

Abstract

The Late Barremian-Late Aptian interval was characterised by several major changes in the ocean/climate system related to the onset of the Mid-Cretaceous greenhouse world. North African sedimentary deposits offer excellent archives of the ecological changes on the southern Tethys continental margin during this time interval. In the present phD thesis sedimentology, palaeontology, biostratigraphy, chemostratigraphy, and geochemistry are combined to reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental evolution and sea-level changes of the Tunisian carbonate platform margin. Respect is paid to major palaeoceanographic and palaeoclimatic events including the late Early Aptian Oceanic Anoxic Event 1a (OAE 1a) and two time intervals associated with widespread carbonate platform drowning in the early- and mid-Late Aptian. The last chapter deals with the cephalopod fauna of the platform margin. Results of the detailed regional investigations are compared to global marine palaeoenvironments and discussed in a broad geological context.