Abstract
GALLOIS has reported the widespread occurrence of coeval coccolith limestones and oil shales in the Kimmeridge Clay of southern England and Lincolnshire1,2. From the association of these limestones with oil shale horizons he suggested that the organic content of the Kimmeridge Clay was largely derived from phytoplankton blooms whose decay produced the temporary anaerobic bottom conditions necessary to preserve organic matter. However, comparisons with similar Quarternary sediments in the Black Sea and Mediterranean has led us to report here that phytoplankton blooms were not the cause, but rather a symptom of widespread anaerobic bottom conditions, and that preservational factors rather than productivity are the major control on the accumulation of black shales. We believe that the fine grained clastic-bituminous shale–oil shale–coccolith limestone lithologic association characteristic of the type Kimmeridge Clay can be attributed to the vertical movement of the O2: H2S interface in a temporarily stratified water column.
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TYSON, R., WILSON, R. & DOWNIE, C. A stratified water column environmental model for the type Kimmeridge Clay. Nature 277, 377–380 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/277377a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/277377a0
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