Upper Cretaceous oceanic red beds (CORBs) in the Tethys: occurrences, lithofacies, age, and environments

Abstract A major change in oceanic sedimentation from mid-Cretaceous organic carbon-enriched deep-sea deposits to predominantly Upper Cretaceous oceanic red beds (CORBs), represented mainly by deep-sea red shales and marls, occurred during the Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary in the Tethys. A variety of earth processes such as organic carbon draw-down, tectonic, palaeoceanographic, eustatic and palaeoclimatic changes, or a combination of these could cause such a change, the main significance of which is that it demonstrates that the deep ocean basins ceased to be the preferential burial site for organic carbon. A compilation of available data on CORB occurrences, composition, and age indicate that: (1) CORBs are found in a broad geographic belt extending from the Caribbean across the central North Atlantic, southern and eastern Europe to Asia; with limited occurrences in the Indian ocean; (2) both the first and the last occurrences of CORBs are diachronous; (3) CORBs are of pelagic and hemipelagic origin and were deposited in a variety of environments from continental slope to deep oceanic basin, above and below the carbonate compensation depth (CCD); (4) total organic carbon (TOC) is mostly

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