Integrative stratigraphy and climatic events of a new lower Paleogene reference section from the Betic Cordillera: Río Gor, Granada province, SE Spain

Abstract

Research interest in the early Paleogene was greatly enhanced after the recognition of several short-lived warming events in that period (hyperthermals), considered ancient analogues of the ongoing warming of the Earth climate. In the Caravaca and Alamedilla sections, the previously most studied lower Paleogene sections of the Subbetic Zone (Betic Cordillera), only the most prominent of these hyperthermals had been located, the so-called Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum. The Río Gor section, though less studied, is found to comprise a lower Paleogene succession that is more expanded and complete than Caravaca and Alamedilla; it contains record of the Early Late Paleocene and Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Events, and at least one additional Eocene hyperthermal, thus offering an excellent opportunity to study these climatic events in the Subbetic Zone. Study of the Río Gor section is still in progress, this paper summarizing the state-of-the art of ongoing research.

Alternating stripmining and sequestration in deep-sea sediments: The trace fossil Polykampton–an ecologic and ichnotaxonomic evaluation

“…The Kahlenberg Formation in Austria, wherein P. multiflabellatum also occurs, contains a typical deepsea trace fossil assemblage (Uchman, 1999). The same is valid for the Spanish occurrences of this ichnospecies (Rodríguez-Tovar et al, 2016;Pujalte et al, 2017).…”

Paleoenvironmental signature of the Selandian-Thanetian Transition Event (STTE) and Early Late Paleocene Event (ELPE) in the Contessa Road section (western Neo-Tethys)

“…The early late Paleocene hyperthermal event (ELPE, Bralower et al, 2002), also known as the mid-Paleocene biotic event (MPBE, Bernaola et al, 2007), is a climatic perturbation occurring in the Late Paleocene, between the Selandian and the Thanetian stages. It has been recognized in several deep-sea cores from the Shatsky Rise (ODP Leg 198,central Pacific), Walvis Ridge (ODP Leg 208, South Atlantic), Maud Rise (ODP Leg 113, Weddell Sea) and Black Nose (ODP Leg 171, North Atlantic) as well as in onland Spanish (Zumaia, Ibaeta, and Rìo Gor), Italian (Contessa Road) Tunisian (Tejerouine), Moroccan (Ouled Abdoun basin), Egyptian (Naqb El-Rufuf) and Mead Stream (New Zealand) sections, and on terrestrial paleosol record (Cerro Bayo, Argentina) (Bralower et al, 2002;Zachos et al, 2004;Petrizzo, 2005;Bernaola et al, 2007;Westerhold et al, 2011;Coccioni et al, 2012;Karoui-Yaakoub et al, 2014;Kocsis et al, 2014;Littler et al, 2014;Pujalte et al, 2014, Pujalte et al, 2016Hyland et al, 2015;Hewaidy et al, 2019) (Fig. 1).…”