A Chemostratigraphic Model for the Development of Parasequences and Its Application to Sequence Stratigraphy and Paleoceanography, Cretaceous Western Interior Basin, USA

Chemo- and lithostratigraphy, and a parasequence model for the development of geochemical facies, are applied to a high-resolution correlation of mid-Cretaceous paleosol-bearing sections, eastern margin of the Western Interior Basin (USA), to coeval marine strata in the basin center. The goal is to link the well-constrained marine chronostratigraphy to the poorly dated amalgamated paleosols to better constrain the influence of base level change and climate in the Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Western Interior Basin. Obliquity-scale stratigraphic variations are interpreted to reflect changes in the relative sea level. A new relative sea level curve for the basin is presented and shown to correlate well to a eustatic sea level curve. Based on this similarity and the timing of parasequence formation, we conclude that global sea level variations affected the stratal architecture of the Cenomanian Western Interior Basin sediments and that the glacioeustasy provides the most viable explanation for those sea level variations.