Orbital tuning of Cenomanian marly chalk successions: towards a Milankovitch time-scale for the Late Cretaceous

Outcrops of Cenomanian marly chalks in the Crimea (Ukraine) and SE England (UK), 2600 km apart, display conspicuous decimetre–scale rhythmicity and can be correlated by using 12 biostratigraphical events. Closely spaced samples from the two sections were used to generate long time–series of digitally captured grey–scale reflectance data. Spectral analysis of these data demonstrates that if the rhythmicity is assumed to be driven by precession (bedding cycles; mode at 20 ka), it is seen to be modulated by the short eccentricity cycle (100 ka bundles). The latter signal is expressed in the sediments by the occurrence of dark marls at precession minima occurring at eccentricity maxima. Although identified in the spectra, tilt (38 ka) and the long eccentricity cycle (400 ka) are not strongly expressed. Comparison of age modelled, unfiltered grey–scale data between the two sections reveals strikingly similar patterns, and enables the identification of a 80 ka hiatus in the UK chalks.