Geochemical and radiogenic isotope records of the Weissert Event in south Tethyan sediments


 The Cretaceous marine sedimentary record is characterized by time intervals rich in organic matter correlating with positive carbon-isotope excursions, often called oceanic anoxic events. The Weissert Event corresponds to the first such event in the Cretaceous during the Valanginian stage. The associated palaeoenvironmental perturbations which include increasing marine surface-water primary productivity are hypothesized to be triggered by volcanic activity from large igneous provinces, and the source of nutrients is not well-constrained (continental runoff
 vs.
 oceanic upwelling). We present isotope ratios of Pb, Sr and Nd together with concentrations of major and trace elements for sediments coming from the central Moroccan margin to test these hypotheses. We demonstrate that the nutrient input was dominated by continental weathering. Also, the source of sedimentary material remained stable during the Valanginian interval and it originated in an old source, probably the African Sahara region. The radiogenic isotope signatures do not show a significant contribution of volcanic products from any known Valanginian large igneous province to the geochemical budget of sediments deposited on the central Moroccan margin. While this does not preclude an impact of volcanic activity on the composition of seawater, it demonstrates that erupted volumes were not sufficient to affect the deposited sediments.
 
 
 Supplementary material:
 Supplementary table contains three sheets: (1) “Central Moroccan Margin”, the analytical data generated and analysed during this study; (2) “Fig. 8 Data - LIPs”, the data of known Valanginian large igneous provinces used for comparison; and (3) “Figs 9 and S5 Data - source areas”, the data of potential surrounding source areas used for comparison, available at
 https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6333040
