Black shale formation in the late Paleocene / early Eocene Arctic Ocean and paleoenvironmental conditions: New results from a detailed organic petrological study

Abstract The study of particulate organic matter (OM) in Arctic Ocean sediments from the late Cretaceous to the Eocene (IODP Expedition 302) has revealed detailed information about the aquatic/marine OM fluxes, biological sources, preservation and export of terrestrial material. Here, we present detailed data from maceral analysis, vitrinite reflectance measurements and organic geochemistry. During the Campanian/Paleocene, fluxes of land-derived OM are indicated by reworked and oxidized macerals (vitrinite, inertinite) and terrigenous liptinite (cutinite, sporinite). In the early Eocene, drastic environmental changes are indicated by peaks in aquatic OM (up to 40–45%, lamalginite, telalginite, liptodetrinite, dinoflagellate cysts) and amorphous OM (up to 50% bituminite). These events of increased aquatic OM flux, similar to conditions favoring black shale deposition, correlate with the global δ 13 C events ‘Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum’ (PETM) and ‘Elmo event’. Freshwater discharge and proximity of the source area are documented by freshwater algae material ( Pediastrum, Botryococcus ) and immature land-plant material (corphuminite, textinite). We consider that erosion of coal-bearing sediments during transgression time lead to humic acids release as a source for bituminite deposited in the early Eocene black shales.