The Carnian Event in the western Tethyan realm

The Mid Carnian event documents one of the most striking turnovers in the sedimentary record as well as in the biotic evolution of the Tethyan Triassic. The growth of carbonate platforms of the shelf area is interrupted immediately by terrigenous clastic sedimentation. The cause of the abrupt termination of platform growth is not well understood: does the lowering of the global sea level be responsible or the terrigenous clastic sedimentation, or other environmental changes? Controlling factors such as sea level changes, climatic changes but also synsedimentary tectonics could have caused this drastic environmental turnover. Integrated biostratigraphic, sequencestratigraphic and chemostratigraphic investigations of standard sections should provide a high-resolution time scale of the Carnian. The old problem of the Carnian of the Alps to correlate time aquivalent, but different lithofacies of carbonate platforms and adjacent basinal areas should be overcome by carbon isotope stratigraphy. The project focuses on two major targets: (1) lithostratigraphic correlation of high resolution in Northern Calcareous Alps and Southern Alps to elaborate the sequencestratigraphic standard cycles of 3rd order. (2) Understanding of linkages between climatic changes and plate tectonics in the time of early Kimmerian orogeny and initial destruction of Pangaea. Fractionation curves of stable isotopes and Strontium isotope ratios of biostratigraphically calibrated standard sections of Hallstatt facies from Austria, Bosnia, Greece and Oman should give a general idea of Carnian paleoceanography, climate and plate tectonics.

The Mid Carnian event documents one of the most striking turnovers in the sedimentary record as well as in the biotic evolution of the Tethyan Triassic. The growth of carbonate platforms of the shelf area is interrupted immediately by terrgenous clastic sedimentation. The cause of the abrupt termination of platform growth is not well understood: does the lowering of the global sea level be responsible or the terrigenous clastic sedimentation, or other environmental changes? Controlling factors such as sea level changes, climatic changes but also synsedimentary tectonics could have caused this drastic environmental turnover. Iniegrated biostratigraphic, sequencestratigraphic and chemostratigraphic investigations of standard sections should provide a high-resolution time scale of the Carnian. The old problem of the Carnian of the Alps to correlate time aquivalent, but different lithofacies of carbonate platforms and adjacent basinal areas should be overcome by carbon isotope stratigraphy. The project focuses an two major targets: 1. lithostratigraphic correlation of high resolution in Northern Calcareous Alps and Southern Alps to elaborate the sequencestratigraphic standard cycles of 3 rd order. 2. Understanding of linkages between climatic changes and plate tectonics in the time of early Kimmerian orogeny and initial destruction of Pangaea. Fractionation curves of stable isotopes and Strontium isotope ratios of biostratigraphically calibrated standard sections of Hallstatt facies from Austria, Bosnia, Greece and Oman should give a general idea of Camian paleoceanography, climate and plate tectonics.