Cenomanian Research Projects

A long-term research effort and goal is a better understanding of the Cenomanian stage of the Cretaceous period. The Cenomanian stage (93.9 - 100.5 mybp) is a particularly interesting time period which includes points when Earth's temperature and sea-levels were at their very highest. It is thought that sea-levels could have been as much as 200 metres higher than they are at the present day and annual mean surface temperatures 10-14 degrees higher than today. Two very significant oceanographic events occur at the beginning and the end of the Cenomanian that are also relatively rare in Earth's long history. These are called Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAEs) and represent significant periods of geological time where the worlds seas and oceans were significantly reduced in the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water. This, generally, was not favourable to life in the waters (although a few fossil groups seem to have thrived) and many marine organisms became extinct, or at least had their distribution considerably restricted.

The position of the continents during Cenomanian times. High global temperatures have caused the melting of the polar ice-caps causing many areas of the continents to be flooded (light blue colour - note most of southern Europe and the midwest of North America is flooded) and here, in tropical/subtropical zones, huge volumes of carbonate rocks (limestones) are deposited. The ocean between North Africa/India and Europe-Asia is called Neotethys. Previously a huge, wide ocean, it is currently (in Cenomanian times) shrinking due to the Atlantic Ocean opening and Africa rotating and (with India) moving northwards. Note that the present day Zagros Mountains (of southern and western Iran) is actually on the northeastern margin of the (Saudi) Arabian plate at this time but will "join" with its Iranian counterpart just after the end of the Cenomanian. Closure of Neotethys along this junction will seal-off the (present-day) Mediterranean from the Indian Ocean, and precipitate large-scale stratigraphic re-ordering in the region. Image courtesy of the Halliburton Products Suite.

Our research efforts have been targeting the biostratigraphic calibration of Cenomanian rocks as, without more precise calibration, it is difficult to demonstrate the synchronicity of geological events in Neotethys and surrounding areas. Our published works are tabulated below and can be downloaded by clicking on the links. Work "in progress" is also shown and will be converted to downloadable links as soon as they are published.