USING OXYGEN AND NEODYMIUM ISOTOPES TO UNDERSTAND THE ORIGINS OF SILURIAN AND DEVONIAN GREENHOUSE CYCLES AND RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SEA-LEVEL CHANGE AND CONTINENTAL WEATHERING FLUX
Samples were collected from Upper Silurian subtidal cycles in central Oklahoma and Upper Devonian subtidal cycles in central Nevada. Upper Silurian cycles (2-3 m thick) are composed of thin bedded, skeletal mudstone-wackestone, coarsening upward into medium to thick bedded skeletal wackestone-packstone. Upper Devonian (Frasnian) cycles (2-5.5 m thick) are composed of thin bedded skeletal mudstones overlain by medium bedded skeletal wackestone-packstone. Asymmetric facies trends in both greenhouse examples suggest abrupt transgression followed by gradual regression.
Preliminary δ18O results from Devonian cycles range from 17-18‰ and indicate initially decreasing, followed by increasing values, with the lowest δ18O values occurring mid-cycle. The total isotopic shift over cycle development is <0.6‰, and supports the interpretation of minor eustatic changes related to glacio- and/or thermo-eustasy. These trends suggest the lowest glacial ice volumes and/or warmest seawater temperatures occurred during sea level highstands. Preliminary εNd trends from Silurian cycles range from -7.3 to -6.7 and are characterized by initially decreasing, then increasing values, with the lowest εNd values occurring mid-cycle. These trends suggest that continental weathering flux was highest during sea-level highstands. If these cycles formed by glacio-eustasy, εNd trends may be explained by regionally wetter climate (increasing weathering flux) during interglacial intervals and decreasing flux during drier glacial intervals. These relationships between regional wet/dry and glacial/interglacial cycles agree with δ18O and εNd trends from cycles formed in Pleistocene and Pennsylvanian icehouse climates.