Radiolarians, Radiolarites, and Mesozoic Paleogeography of the Circum-Mediterranean Alpine Belts
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3 Radiolarians, Radiolarites, and Mesozoic Paleogeography of the Circum-Mediterranean Alpine Belts Patrick De Wever Overview pearance of all the radiolarites in the Uppermost Jurassic may be attributed to a drastic change in cir Radiolarites are of great importance as bathymetric culation from gyres producing upwelling in the indicators for paleogeographic reconstructions and Tethyan basin, to latitudinal, east-to-west circula geodynamic models. Only recently have we been tion through Central America which broke down the able to date radiolarites and many age dates are scat upwelling regime in much of the tethyan area. tered through the specialized geologic literature. The inventory ofavailable data from the Mesozoic of the circum-Mediterranean Alpine fold belts reveals Introduction two general periods of 'radiolarite sedimentation, both associated with sedimentary and ophiolitic Radiolarites (rhythmically centimeter-bedded cherts sequences: one period occurred during Triassic alternating with millimeter-bedded shale) are of and/or Liassic time, the other during Dogger and/or great importance for paleogeographic reconstruc MaIm time. The Triassic-Liassic sections are alloch tions and geodynamic models because of their bath tonous. Radiolarites associated with extrusive rocks ymetric significance and their frequent association are considered to be the sedimentary cover of an with ophiolites. They are a very good marker for the oceanic crust, either of an open ocean, back-arc study of margin formation, subsidence, and evolu basin or small ocean basin. Radiolarites intercalated tion and are important for dating the oceanic crust. with other sedimentary rocks belong to nappes with However, direct dating of radiolarite was not pos unknown basement rocks, probably of thinned con sible until recently, since these sedimentary rocks do tinental crust. Radiolarites deposited during Dogger not bear the fossils commonly used for stratigraphy and MaIm time are of three types and characterize (e.g., foraminifers, nannofossils). Locally they had three environments whose common attribute is a been indirectly dated by reworked microfauna basal diachronism and a synchronous top. Radio included in rare beds of microbreccia (i.e., in the larites intercalated with sedimentary sequences Pindos-Olonos zone, Greece- Dercourt et al., 1973; occurred in basins that received deposits since Trias Thiebault et aI., 1981; De Wever and Thiebault, sic time (i.e., Lagonegro, Pindos-Olonos zone) or in 1981). Moreover, the petrographic composition of regions newly invaded by water masses (i.e., Austro these rocks did not permit use of the usual etching Alpine zone). Detailed local studies suggest deposi techniques for extracting fossils. In the 1970s, this tion on faulted blocks of a rifting margin. Although difficulty was overcome by the discovery of Dumi the base of radiolarites is not synchronous in differ trica (1970). His etching technique has been des ent units, it nevertheless starts around the Dogger cribed and improved by several authors (Pessagno and the maximum development was generally dur and Newport, 1972; De Wever et aI., 1979a; De ing Oxfordian time. The base of radiolarites asso Wever, 1982). Radiolarites of circum-Alpine oro ciated with ophiolites is everywhere dated as MaIm genic belts have since been analyzed paleontologi but the bases are not exactly synchronous; data are cally (Baumgartner et al., 1980; Baumgartner, 1984; still too few to analyze the details. The sudden disap- Kocher, 1981; Thiebault et aI., 1981; De Wever and 32 Patrick De Wever 6 6 ~ FIGURE 3.1. Synthesis of radiolarites sensu !:: .- c stricto (level 3b of Radiolarite Formation in .5! c c 0' Fleury, 1980) age dates. From left to right: syn N C C C c C CD o "~ ~ 0 0 o a ~ "~ c QI thetic lithologic column, radiolarite formation. V "; 'E C ~ c o 0 QI 0 .r; o o E 0 .... .r; 3a: Pelites de Kasteli member; 3b: radiolarite )( "~ 0 0 0 '0 o ~ ..... ~ CD CD u o ~ member (= radiolarites s.s.); 3c: Calcaires aCal pionelles member. Age assignments: thick Ir----.-.----\ 3 c horizontal line represents the well-documented age range; thin horizontal line represents the less well documented age range. The narrow age range for each sample is joined to its neighbor (thin line, stippled area); the same is done for wide age ranges (thick line, blank area). a: Age assign ments of Dercourt et al. (1973) on the basis of Lucasella cayeuxi (Lucas). Time scale is from Odin and Kennedy (1982). Sedimentation rates (of lithified sediment, equivalent to the sedimen tation rate of the silica component-Si02 representing 95-99% of the total rock). Lower part: 35 m120 Ma = 1.7 m/Ma. Middle part: 10 mil8 Ma = 0.5 m/Ma. Upper part: 18 m/8 Ma = 2.2 m/Ma. Average: 65 m/46 Ma = 1.4 m/Ma. 30 Caby, 1981; De Wever and Thiebault, 1981; De blages in a sequence about 60 m thick (Fig. 3.1) Wever, 1982, 1984; De Wever and Origlia-Devos, representing Bajocian to Tithonian. Age determi 1982a,b; Dumitrica and Mello, 1982; Origilia nations in different sections allow calculation of Devos, 1983; Baumgartner, 1984; EI Kadiri, 1984; the average sedimentation rate (for lithified sedi De Wever and Miconnet, 1985; De Wever et al., ment) for the entire formation (1.4 m/Ma). The 1985, 1986b; De Wever and Cordey, 1986.) As this lower part ofthe Radiolarite Formation shows a rela list of references reveals, age information is recent tively high sedimentation rate of 3 m/Ma; the upper and dispersed throughout the specialized scientific part reveals a lower rate. Therefore, using radiolar literature. ians, variation in the sedimentation rate is detect able in a sequence. Calculation of sedimentation rates assumes that the sedimentary environment Age-Dating Capabilities with remained closed to the input or release of silica dur Radiolarians and Determination ing diagenetic processes. The sedimentation rates determined with radio ofSedimentation Rates ofRadiolarite larians for the Pindos-Olonos zone are compatible with rates proposed by other authors for other Mes During the 1980s, our knowledge of Mesozoic radi ozoic bedded chert sections: olarian stratigraphy increased a great deal, espe cially with respect to low-latitude belts. Radiolarian 2 m/Ma for Franciscan chert (S. Karl, unpublished stratigraphy now permits precise dating ofotherwise data in Hein and Karl, 1983) unfossiliferous siliceous rocks. 4 m/Ma as average for different Tethyan radiolarites As an example, in the Pindos-Olonos zone according to Bernoulli (in Garrision and Fischer, (Greece) (Fig. 3.1), it is possible to record 18 assem- 1969) 3. Radiolarites, Circum-Mediterranean Alpine Belts 33 0.7 to 1.0 m/Ma for East Alpine radiolarite (Garri silica, and dissolution of the silica tests), Barrett son and Fischer, 1969) (1981) found it more meaningful to report the 1.0 to 5.3 m/Ma (McBride and Thompson, 1970) for number of events (turbidites) per time unit. If we partially lithified chert (novaculites from Texas) accept that a bed represents one turbidite, this calcu 3 to 9 m/Ma for East Alpine radiolarite (Schlager lation reveals an average of47 events per Ma (thick and Schlager, 1973) ness ofthe series is 60 m, average bed thickness is 4 27 to 34 m/Ma for radiolarite in Japan (Iijima et al., cm, duration is 32 Ma) for the Pindos-Olonos series 1978) (Greece) in contrast to the 100 to 400 events cal 2.8 m/Ma for bedded cherts from Inuyama region, culated by Barrett for Ligurian cherts of northern Japan (Matsuda et al., 1980) Italy. One cycle in the Greek Radiolarite Formation 3.3 to 6.2 m/Ma for radiolarite in Northern Italy represents around 21,000 years. This cyclicity cor (Kocher, 1981) responds well to the period of precession in the 7.5 m/Ma in the Chichibu Chert Formation in Japan Milankovitch theory ofclimate variation (De Wever, (Matsumoto and Iijima, 1983) for the chert beds 1987). Alternatively, it has been proposed that the and 40 m/Ma for the shale partings bedding results from diagenesis. This is suggested by the observation that diatomites that are massive These rates are approximate, because they were when they are still opal-A acquired a pronounced not determined with the same chronostratigraphic rhythmic bedding when they underwent diagenesis scale. Different time length variations used for the (transformed in opal-CT) (Pisciotto and Garrison, Jurassic are as follows: Van Hinte (1976), 20 Ma; 1981, pIll). The origin ofthe bedding is not always Odin and Kennedy (1982), 28 Ma; Harland et al. clear, and both primary and diagenetic bedding no (1982), 25 Ma; Kent and Gradstein (1985), 25 Ma; doubt occur. The bedding in the rhythmically bed Westermann (1984), 24 Ma. The maximum differ ded Mesozoic cherts of Austria are clearly primary ence represents 40 %, and the proposed sedimenta (Vescei et al., this volume). One would not expect tion rates have to be considered to be within a 40% the bedding in diatomaceous and radiolarian-rich range. deposits to be the same because of the different More recent (unconsolidated) sediments have high hydrodynamic properties of the two microfossil rates of sedimentation; for example, siliceous sedi groups (Hein and Karl, 1983). ments (carbonate-free) found in Antarctic zones show rates of up to 4.8 m/Ma (Brewster, 1980). Some quoted sedimentation rates are up to 40 to 50 Ages of Tethyan Radiolarite m/Ma in the east Pacific and even 90 to 235 m/Ma in diatomaceous sediment from the Miocene of Japan The inventory of available data from Tethyan radio (Iijima et al., 1982; Matsumoto and Iijima, 1983), larites reveals, in general, two periods of pro but these correspond to the bulk sedimentation rate nounced biosiliceous sedimentation, one during (all phases) and not to the sedimentation rate ofonly Triassic and/or Liassic time, the other during Dog the silica phase.