Evaluating Late Cretaceous OAEs and the influence of marine incursions on organic carbon burial in an expansive East Asian paleo-lake

Expansive Late Cretaceous lacustrine deposits of East Asia offer unique stratigraphic records to better understand regional responses to global climate events, such as oceanic anoxic events (OAEs), and terrestrial organic carbon burial dynamics. This study presents bulk organic carbon isotopes (delta C-13(org)), elemental concentrations (XRF), and initial osmium ratios (Os-187/Os-188, Os-i) from the Turonian-Coniacian Qingshankou Formation, a similar to 5 Ma lacustrine mudstone succession in the Songliao Basin of northeast China. A notable delta C-13(org) excursion (similar to+2.5 parts per thousand) in organic carbon-lean Qingshankou Members 2-3 correlates to OAE3 in the Western Interior Basin (WIB) of North America within temporal uncertainty of high-precision age models. Decreases in carbon isotopic fractionation (Delta C-13) through OAE3 in the WIB and Songliao Basin, suggest that significantly elevated global rates of organic carbon burial drew down pCO(2), likely cooling climate. Despite this, Osi chemostratigraphy demonstrates no major changes in global volcanism or weathering trends through OAE3. Identification of OAE3 in a lake system is consistent with lacustrine records of other OAEs (e.g., Toarcian OAE), and underscores that terrestrial environments were sensitive to climate perturbations associated with OAEs. Additionally, the relatively radiogenic Osi chemostratigraphy and XRF data confirm that the Qingshankou Formation was deposited in a non-marine setting. Organic carbon-rich intervals preserve no compelling Os-i evidence for marine incursions, an existing hypothesis for generating Member l's prolific petroleum source rocks. Based on our results, we present a model for water column stratification and source rock deposition independent of marine incursions, detailing dominant biogeochemical cycles and lacustrine organic carbon burial mechanisms. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.