Loading…

Oxygen and Carbon Stable Isotope Composition of Cretaceous to Pliocene Calcareous Paleosols in the Tian Shan Region (Central Asia): Controlling Factors and Paleogeographic Implications

The Late Mesozoic–Cenozoic topographic and climate evolution of Central Asia remains highly debated. The final retreat of the proto-Paratethys Sea from the western Tarim Basin is thought to correspond in time with the onset of tectonic uplift in the Pamir, Tian Shan and Altai ranges, as well as with...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geosciences (Basel) 2018-09, Vol.8 (9), p.330
Main Authors: Jolivet, Marc, Boulvais, Philippe, Barrier, Laurie, Robin, Cécile, Heilbronn, Gloria, Ledoyen, Julie, Ventroux, Quentin, Jia, Yingying, Guo, Zhaojie, Bataleva, Elena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Late Mesozoic–Cenozoic topographic and climate evolution of Central Asia remains highly debated. The final retreat of the proto-Paratethys Sea from the western Tarim Basin is thought to correspond in time with the onset of tectonic uplift in the Pamir, Tian Shan and Altai ranges, as well as with regional aridification. The oxygen and carbon isotope compositions of the sediment deposits in the various Central Asian basins have already been used to decipher both the topographic and climatic changes that occurred in that region during the Cenozoic, generally concentrating on one sedimentary section and/or on a limited time range and either using multiple-type samples including sandstone calcitic cements, marine carbonates, fossils, or paleosols. In order to get a homogeneous dataset, minimizing variations in the isotopic composition of the material depending on its type and/or depositional environment, we selected only calcareous paleosols sampled in several continuous sections covering a wide time range from the Late Jurassic to the Pliocene. Our sampling also covers a wide area encompassing the whole Tian Shan region, which allows detecting regional variations in the δ18O and δ13C values. We show that the influence of the distance to the proto-Paratethys Sea on the paleosol δ18O record was not significant. Besides local factors such as the occurrence of large lakes that can have a significant effect on the isotopic composition of the calcareous paleosols, the long-term evolution of both the δ18O and δ13C values possibly reflects the hypsometry of the river drainage systems that bring water to the basins. However, as it is commonly accepted that the δ18O of soil carbonates is controlled by the δ18O of in-situ precipitation, this last conclusion remains to be further investigated.
ISSN:2076-3263
2076-3263
DOI:10.3390/geosciences8090330