Organic carbon and metal accumulation rates in Holocene and mid- Cretaceous sediments: palaeoceanographic significance.

Holocene transition-metal accumulation rates are controlled dominantly by bulk accumulation rates. Euxinic deep water environments, characterized by high organic-carbon preservation factors, are more successfully identified by sedimentological than by geochemical criteria. Sedimentological evidence from several mid-Cretaceous intervals implies widespread deep-water anoxia, high organic-carbon preservation factors, and correspondingly low primary productivity for large parts of the mid-Cretaceous oceans. -from Authors