Variations In Trace Elements, Isotopes, And Organic Geochemistry During The Hangenberg Crisis, Devonian-Carboniferous Transition, Northeastern Vietnam

The Hangenberg Crisis at the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary is known as a polyphase extinction event that affected more than 45 % of marine and terrestrial genera. As the cause of this event is still debated, analyses were carried out on sedimentary samples from the Devonian-Carboniferous Pho Han Formation in northeastern Vietnam to reconstruct the paleoenvironment around the time of this event using stable carbon isotopes; total sulfur; manganese; vanadium; molybdenum; and sedimentary organic matter, such as dibenzothiophenes, cadalene, and regular steranes. These geochemical signatures provide a high-resolution redox history for this section and show that transgression-driven high primary productivity, possibly enhanced by terrestrial input, caused severe oxygen depletion along the continental margin of the South China block during the Hangenberg Crisis.