SCIENCE CHINA

Earth Sciences
SPECIAL TOPIC: Mesozoic greenhouse palaeoclimate and sea-level changes doi: 10.1007/s11430-016-0166-y
•  REVIEW  •

Anatomy of a eustatic event during the Turonian (Late Cretaceous)

hot greenhouse climate
Bilal U. HAQ1,2 & Brian T. HUBER1*
1
Department of Paleobiology, MRC-121, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D C 20013, USA;
2
Sorbonne, ISTEP Pierre & Marie Curie University, Paris 75005, France

Received July 27, 2016; accepted November 2, 2016; published online December 7, 2016

Abstract    Sequence stratigraphic studies consider relative change in sea level (as regulated by eustasy, local tectonics and
sediment supply) as the main builder of the stratigraphic record. Eustasy has generally been considered as a consequence of the
growth and decay of continental ice sheets that would explain large, rapid changes in sea level, even during periods of relative
global climatic warmth. However, such a mechanism has become increasingly difficult to envision during times of extreme
global warmth such as the Turonian, when the equator-to-pole temperature gradient was very low and the presence of polar ice
seems improbable. This paper investigates the timing and extent of sea level falls during the late Cenomanian through Turonian,
especially the largest of those events, sequence boundary KTu4, which occurred during the middle to late Turonian peak of the
Cretaceous hot greenhouse climate. We conclude that the amplitude of the widespread third-order sea level fall in the middle
Turonian that is centered at ~91.8 Ma varies at different locations depending on the influence of dynamic topography on local
tectonics and regional climatic conditions. Ice volume variations seem unlikely as a mechanism for controlling sea level at this
time. However, this causal factor cannot be ruled out completely since Antarctic highlands (if they existed in the Late Cretaceous)
could sequester enough water as ice to cause eustatic falls. To ascertain this requires detailed tomographic imaging of Antarctica,
followed by geodynamic modeling, to determine whether high plateaus could have existed to accumulate ephemeral ice sheets.
Other mechanisms for sea level change, such as transference between ground water (a small amplitude shorter time scale effect)
and the ocean and entrainment and release of water from the mantle to the oceanic reservoir (a potentially large amplitude and
longer time scale process), are intriguing and need to be explored further to prove their efficacy at third-order time scales.
Keywords    Eustatic event, Turonian, Hot greenhouse climate

Citation: Haq B U, Huber B T. 2016. Anatomy of a eustatic event during the Turonian (Late Cretaceous) hot greenhouse climate. Science China Earth Sciences,
doi: 10.1007/s11430-016-0166-y

1.   Introduction controlling factor(s), although climatic causes (ephemeral ice

sheets on Antarctica and long-term Milankovitch orbital ec-
Several relatively short-lived eustatic events (prominent sea-
centricity-related climatic changes) have been invoked. Here,
level falls) have been widely identified during the early part of
we take a detailed look at the largest of these Late Cretaceous
the Late Cretaceous global highstand of sea level, which was
events that occurred during the middle Turonian and has been
a time of extreme global climatic warmth. These marine with-
designated KTu4 by Haq (2014) following a revision of the
drawals are expressed as sequence boundaries in the strati-
original Cretaceous sea-level curve of Haq et al. (1987a) and
graphic record and they have been categorized variously as
its later iterations (e.g., Haq et al., 1987b, 1988; Hardenbol et
third-order and fourth-order events, with as yet unascertained
al., 1998; Haq and Al-Qahtani, 2005).
We start with a brief discussion of eustatic history of the
*Corresponding author (email: huberb@si.edu) late Cenomanian-Turonian interval. The Cenomanian and
© Science China Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016  earth.scichina.com    link.springer.com
2  
Haq B U, et al.    
Turonian stages record the highest sea levels for the Creta-
ceous Period. Within this long-term trend of high seastand,
Haq et al. (1987a) identified a major sea-level fall in the
middle to late Turonian that was preceded by two minor re-
gressive events. These events were cross-correlated through
ammonite zones and interpolated microfossil biochronology,
which remains the only practical method of correlating
sequence boundaries in the Cretaceous, although additional
tools such as chemostratigraphy and stable-isotopes are
sometime also available. Thus, depending on which bio-
zone (or subzone) an event is tied to, the estimated zonal
duration becomes the extent of uncertainty (or the error bar)
surrounding the dating of a particular event (Haq, 2014).
Major third-order events, occurring consistently in many
parts of the world in the same biozone (or its equivalent
biozone of another fossil group), have been deemed to be
synchronous, especially when major disruptive influences
from local tectonics can be ruled out. Nevertheless, steady
subsidence (or uplift) may locally dampen or enhance the
amplitude of this change, which can be corrected for to get a
meaningful measure of local sea-level change.
A change in local tectonics (i.e., rates of subsidence/up-
lift), as well in the a rates of sediment supply to a margin or
a basin, can not only modify the local measure of the am-
plitude of sea-level fall, but can also slow down (delay) the
timing at which the sea-level falls below the shelf edge and
starts incising the shelf to produce incised valleys. Thus, a
certain amount of diachroneity (within the error range) is to
be expected in the timing of the third-order sequence bound-
aries. Far-field tectonics (e.g., dynamic topography; Haq,
2014; Cloetingh and Haq, 2015) can also significantly influ-
ence regional tectonics and thus the amplitude of sea-level
events when measured locally. This has led to the conclusion
that estimates of amplitude in any given location are always
local or regional measures of sea-level change (= eurybatic)
and not equal to a collective measure of the global mean (=
eustatic) (Haq, 2014; Cloetingh and Haq, 2015).
2.   The age of KTu4 event and error estimate
The astrochronologically calibrated time scale of Meyers
et al. (2012) has firmly placed the Cenomanian-Turonian
boundary at 93.9 Ma, an age that was adopted by Ogg and
Hinnov (2012) in the 2012 Geological Time Scale (GTS
2012). The latter time scale is used here. In the Turonian the
Haq (2014) revision of the Cretaceous sea-level record rec-
ognized a prominent sequence boundary (SB) in the middle
to late Turonian and another near the Turonian-Coniacian
boundary (KTu4 and KTu5 centered at 91.8 and 89.9 Ma,
respectively). The other three events, listed in the early
Turonian were considered minor in amplitude. These SB
events have been tied and cross-correlated based on am-
monite zonation schemes (aided by microfossil zonations)
Sci China Earth Sci   
in northern Europe and North America. Hardenbol et al.
(1998) produced extremely valuable cross-correlations of
various fossil groups that greatly facilitate trans-Atlantic
correlations.
A middle Turonian major sequence boundary (KTu4) has
been identified in several northern European sections, the
Western Interior Basin (WIB), the New Jersey Coastal Plain,
and the Arabian Platform (Haq et al., 1988; Miller et al., 2004;
Haq and Qahtani, 2005). It should be emphasized that in the
present paper, correlations to GTS 2012 are well supported
for the European and WIB sections, but other correlations
are not as well constrained and are dependent on the bios-
tratigraphic determinations of the original authors and their
interpretations of age equivalence to the standard European
biozones and substages.
According to multiple integrative criteria, KTu4 occurs
near the base of the Romaniceras deverianum Ammonite
Subzone in Europe (termed Tu3 by Hardenbol et al. (1998)),
which has a duration of ~0.4 Myr and is in the upper part of
the European Collignoniceras woollgari Zone (Hardenbol et
al., 1998). In the WIB this interval correlates with the base
of the local Prionocyclus hyatti Zone and is stratigraphically
above the WIB concept of C. woollgari and C. percarinatus
Zones (Hardenbol and Robaszynski, 1998; Figure 1) with a
total duration of ~1 Myr. In Europe the R. deverianum sub-
zone (as well as the P. hyatti Zone in WIB) has an estimated
duration of ~0.4 Myr. This gives an error estimate for the
KTu4 sequence boundary of ~0.4 Myr.
An error bar of ~0.4 Myr for KTu4 is considered suffi-
ciently narrow for third-order cycles, most of which last
between one to three million years. For more precise corre-
lations than those available, multiple overlapping biozones
(based on several different fossil groups) can sometimes
narrow the limits of uncertainty (see Hardenbol et al. (1998)
correlation charts for the Cretaceous of European basins).
Chemostratigraphic (e.g., strontium isotopes) and sta-
ble-isotopic correlations primarily using oxygen and carbon
isotopes, can also be helpful in reducing the age uncertainty.
However, in the middle to late Turonian interval, microfossil
(nannoplankton and planktonic foraminiferal) zones have
wide durations and correlation uncertainties and isotopic
data are not available from many individual sections. Thus,
one is forced to rely heavily on ammonite zonal schemes
and their correlatability. Nevertheless, to adequately address
questions concerning causal mechanisms for eustatic events
(e.g., whether sufficiently large ice sheets could have existed
and whether ice volume variation were responsible for eu-
static shifts) in the Turonian, greater chronological precision
is needed. Is such a precision possible for the KTu4 event?
Here we would like to examine the third-order KTu4 event
at the peak of the Turonian hot greenhouse climate to ascer-
tain whether a single, causal mechanism was likely to have
produced this prominent sequence boundary.

Haq B U, et al.    Sci China Earth Sci    3
2.1   “Orders” of sedimentary cyclicity
In his discussion of Cretaceous eustasy, Haq (2014) stressed
that when considering sea-level change, it is important to
specify the time scale of the events under consideration
because of the differences in approach used for measuring
longer-term trends vs shorter duration events. For example,
longer-term (>10 Myr) sea level trends have been estimated
by several interdependent techniques, including those based
on continental flooding data, variations in the mean age of the
seafloor (which works as far back as Cretaceous), variations
in the volume of mid-ocean ridges and their total length, and
ocean-floor emplacement of seamounts and large igneous
provinces. In addition, in younger parts of the Cenozoic,
longer-term trends in oxygen-isotopic variations of seawater
have also been employed to garner a sense of the long- and
short-term fluctuations of ice volumes sequestered on the
continents and their effect on changes in the amplitude of
global sea level. These long-term trends (also known as
second-order variations) clearly indicate that the Cenoma-
nian-Turonian was a time of high sea stands, possibly the
highest in the Mesozoic (Haq, 2014). Over the shorter time
scales of third-order variations (~0.5 to 3 Myr, most events
being around ~1 Myr), sea-level changes, are largely mea-
sured stratigraphically along continental margins and in the
interior basins. These produce sedimentary cycles of princi-
pal relevance in exploration geology and are thus targets of
interest for the petroleum industry. Fourth-order sea-level
changes are those that occur on multiple Milankovitch orbital
time scales (e.g., the ~405 kyr cyclicity, multiples of the
orbital eccentricity) and are assumed to be largely climat-
ically driven. This scale of cyclicity also seems to be the
basic building block of the broader sedimentary cycles. Such
Table 1    Various mechanisms that can modify local/regional (eurybatic) and global (eustatic) measures of sea levels, their time scales, their magnitude of
change, and their extent a)
Mechanism Operative time scales
Water sequestration on land
1) Terrestrial acquifers and lakes <0.01 Myr
2) Glaciations/deglaciations 0.01−0.1 Myr
3) Water exchange with mantle ?0.1−1.0 Myr
Changes in container capacity of oceans
1) GIA a) elastic rebound 0.000001 Myr
b) viscous mantle flow 0.0001−0.1 Myr
2) Mean age of oceanic crust 50−100 Myr
3) Ridge production rate changes 50−100 Myr
4) Ocean floor volcanic activity (LIPS) 1−10 Myr
5) Mantle/Lithosphere interactions 1−10 Myr
6) Intraplate deformation 1−10 Myr
7) Dynamic topography >5 Myr
8) Sedimentation 1−10 Myr
a) GIA: Glacial Isostatic Adjustment. After Cloetingh and Haq (2015).
higher-frequency cycles are normally beyond the resolution
of remote investigative tools (such as seismic exploration
imaging). However, when sedimentation rates are high (e.g.,
in a deltaic region) fourth-order cycles may be preserved
in the sedimentary record and are more easily discernable,
even on seismic lines. The fourth-order sedimentary cycles
become important in exploration at the field-scale during
exploitation engineering as their architecture and stacking
patterns provide clues to the potential baffles and barriers to
fluid flow. Thus, the origin of third-order cycles is related
more to the convenience of the most common exploration
tool and its resolution limits (i.e., seismic stratigraphy) rather
than any other factor. And these cycles could have had both
a climatic and tectonic origin.
2.2   Tectonics and eustasy
In recent years we have become aware that the global signal of
sea-level variations can be expressed differently in different
places due to regional lithospheric deflections that occur on
all time scales (see Haq (2014) for a discussion; Table 1). On
shorter time scales (10–100’s of years), both elastic isostatic
response to ice and water unloading during deglacials, and
post-glacial viscous lithospheric response (at 1000–100000
years’ time scales) leading to mass redistribution at depth,
cause regional vertical movements along the continental mar-
gins (see Conrad (2013), for a summary of solid Earth influ-
ences on sea level). These therefore influence our measure-
ment of the eurybatic amplitudes (measure of local or regional
sea-level change) on shorter time scales.
For the longer, third order, time scales of sea-level changes
(especially at the higher range of these cycles) dynamic to-
pography may become more relevant. Dynamic topography
Magnitude of change Potential extent
up to 100 m Global
100−250 m Global
Unknown ?Global
up to 100 m Regional
100−300 m Global
500−1000 m Global
10−100 m Regional/Global
10−1000 m Regional/Global
up to 1000 m Regional/Global
50−100 m Global
4  
Haq B U, et al.    
is a term that has been used for broad, longer wavelength, to-
pographic anomalies caused by mantle convection flow pat-
terns (mantle upwelling and downwelling) that influence the
stratigraphic measure of eurybatic changes in many locations
(see Haq (2014), Cloetingh and Haq (2015), and references
therein). The role of dynamic topography has been recog-
nized as the reason for variance between estimates of eury-
batic and eustatic amplitudes. Haq (2014) concluded that
since the effects of dynamic topography are apparent largely
on the relatively longer time scales (>5 Myr), its net effect is
to inhibit or augment the underlying global signal of higher
frequency sea-level events that occur at shorter time scales
and it rarely dampens out this signal completely.
3.   Turonian sequence boundaries
In Figure 1, we have summarized the biostratigraphic criteria
for age assignment of the KTu4 event that has been identified
as a major sequence boundary, when the global sea level is
estimated to have fallen ~75 m (Haq, 2014). In this figure we
compare the latest Cenomanian to Turonian sequence bound-
aries of Haq (2014) with sequence boundaries and their asso-
ciated unconformities identified in the Western Interior Sea-
way, the New Jersey Coastal Plain, England, Europe, Egypt
and the Russian Platform. We note that although the sea level
history interpreted for the latter region has been cited in nu-
merous works, it is problematic due to difficulties in corre-
lating local ammonite and inoceramid zones with the rest of
Europe and because the deverianun and neptuni ammonite
zones are considered as contemporaneous, which is contrary
to the biostratigraphic scheme reproduced in Figure 1 (Gale,
1996). Hiatus ages are interpreted from ages provided in the
original publications with updates, where possible, for bio-
zone boundary age estimates for Northwest Europe (Ogg and
Hinnov, 2012) and radiometric ages from the Western Interior
Seaway (Cobban et al., 2006). The remaining age estimates
are inferred from indirect correlation with Northwest Euro-
pean macrofossil biozones and/or relative positions within
identified substages. The duration of erosion associated with
the KTu4 event (and thus the extent of the missing section)
varies in different locations, which depends on the local am-
plitude of the sea-level fall as well as duration of the subaerial
exposure.
In Northern European basins the event under considera-
tion was identified as Tu3 by Hardenbol et al. (1998) and
placed in the upper part of the C. woollgari Zone (within the
R. deverianum Subzone in Europe), and this was later desig-
nated as KTu4 by Haq (2014). Although multiple unconfor-
mities have been placed at different levels within late Ceno-
manian and Turonian sequences in England (Gale, 1996),
the Salzgitter-Salder section in Poland (Voigt and Hilbrecht,
1997), and the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin in the Czech Re-
public (Wiese et al., 2004), the KTu4 event of Haq (2014)
Sci China Earth Sci   
stands out as the most widely correlatable.
A comparison with Jarvis et al.’s (2006) detailed δ13C
carbon-isotopic curve for the Late Cretaceous indicates that
their database stops just short of KTu4 event in the Culver
Cliff, Isle of Wight, and Dover sections of England (see
their Fig. 3), but may extend to this level in the Eastbourne
section. However, there is no prominent anomaly in the
interval that should correlate with the KTu4 event. A more
recent δ13C correlation with an expanded Turonian pelagic
section from Bohemia in the Czech Republic (Jarvis et al.,
2015) shows similarities in the long-term trends with other
sections in NW Europe and the WIB, but again no shifts
correlate with the KTu4 event. We therefore cannot use
δ13C curves as an additional criterion for correlation of the
KTu4 event. In North America, the best records for studying
Turonian sea level changes are recorded on the New Jersey
Coastal Plain and in the Western Interior Basin (WIB). Two
sequence boundaries were identified within inner to middle
neritic Turonian sediments drilled at the Ancora and Bass
River boreholes on the New Jersey Coastal Plain (Miller et
al., 2004). These are not well resolved biostratigraphically
because of the shallow paleodepth, but integration of Sr
isotope stratigraphy with the biostratigraphic results suggests
that the biggest sea level drop occurred during the middle
Turonian at nearly the same time as the KTu4 event. The
second Turonian sequence boundary was estimated to occur
during the late Turonian. In the central WIB, widespread
Turonian unconformities have been recorded at the base and
top of the Codell Sandstone (Joo and Sageman, 2014). The
KTu4 unconformity occurs at the base of this unit within
the lower Prionocyclus hyatti Ammonite Zone, which is
correlative with the upper C. woollgari of Northwest Europe
and. Difficulties in correlating WIB ammonite zones with
those of Europe remain. For example, as noted above, in
the WIB the C. woollgari Zone is followed by the first oc-
currence of Prionocyclus hyatti, whereas the ranges of these
species overlap in SE France (Kennedy et al., 2000). Such
distributional anomalies make a stratigrapher’s job more
complex, and again underscore the need for using of multiple
overlapping criteria for establishing such correlations.
In shallow marine sections studied in Egypt four sequence
boundaries were identified in Turonian sediments by Wilm-
sen and Nagm (2013), one of which, designated as Tu2, cor-
relates with the KTu4 event. On the Russian Platform a major
sequence boundary was identified in the mid-Turonian and la-
beled as Tu2 by Sahagian et al. (1996). However, because of
the difficulties in correlating Russian ammonite zones with
the rest of Europe, it is not clear if this comes anywhere close
to corresponding with the KTu4 event.
Detailed studies of an expanded pelagic Turonian section
from Bohemia in the Czech Republic (Uličný et al., 2014;
Olde et al., 2015; Jarvis et al., 2015) are relevant and need to
be  considered  here.  This  area  in  the  Bohemia  was sub-
  
Haq B U, et al.    Sci China Earth Sci    5

    Upper
    
Figure 1     Cenomanian–Turonian ammonite and inoceramid biozones and previously identified sea level fall events identified as unconformities (wavy
pattern) and sequence boundaries (numbered events) that include third-order events labeled in bold. Diagonal pattern represents missing time and/or missing
section. Age estimates for Northwest European ammonite zones are from Ogg and Hinnov (2012). Positions of hiatuses (wavy lines) estimated from relative
position in biozone used for regional correlation. Dashed biozones and hiatuses may have significant age uncertainty. Labels and disconformities shown for
some of the sequence boundary events were used in the original publications. References include: 1, Haq (2014); 2, Joo and Sageman (2014); 3, Sageman et al.
(1998); 4, Miller et al. (2004); 5, Gale (1996); 6, Hardenbol et al. (1998) and Hardenbol and Robaszynski (1998); 7, Voigt and Hilbrecht (1997); 8, Wilmsen
and Nagm (2013); 9, Sahagian et al. (1996). Abbreviations are as follows: Ang. = Aristrocrat Angus core; Port. = USGS #1 Portland core; Mark. Plat. =
Markagunt Plateau; N.J. Cst. Pl. = New Jersey Coastal Plain; Anc. = Ancora core; Bass = Bass River core; NW Euro. = Northwest Europe; Salz.-Sald. =
Salzgitter-Salder quarry. See cited publications for full spelling of biozones.

jected to high-resolution sedimentological, geochemical,
stable-isotopic, and palynological analyses. Numerous
short-term transgressive-regressive cycles in the Turonian
were identified basin-wide (Uličný et al., 2014) and geo-
chemical indicators, (e.g., Mn, Ti/Al ratios) and dinocysts
were considered as potential indicators for short-, medium-
and long-term sea-level cycles, respectively (Olde et al.,
2015). Long-term trends of the δ13C record (with a 40 kyr
resolution) from the section correlate with NW European
and WIB sections, thus indicating its potential for sorting
out discrepancies in the ammonite zones in the two regions.
However, as the data currently exist, it is difficult to pick the
3rd-order cycles from among the many Milankovitch scale
cycles, expressed as short-term Turonian transgressive-re-
gressive events in the Bohemian sections. The area was
tectonically active during the Late Cretaceous and, therefore,
the rates of sea-level falls in such an area would have to
be much greater than the rate of subsidence in order to be
recognized as a major sea-level event. Moreover, the iden-
tified transgressive/regressive cycles may have been purely
a response to local sediment supply responding to climate
change in the sediment source area rather than to eustasy.
4.   Turonian hot greenhouse climate
Based on the widespread correlation of a third-order sea-level
fall within approximately the same middle Turonian am-
monite zone and correlative inoceramid zone, the KTu4
sequence boundary can reasonably be considered a global
eustatic event. Within the chronostratigraphic resolution
available, which generally does not include microfossil or
radiometric age control, its temporal duration seems to have
6  
Haq B U, et al.    
varied and this age is centered at ~91.8 Ma according to GTS
2012 (where it was labeled as Tu3).
The KTu4 sequence boundary occurs during the warmest
time of the Cretaceous Period (Hay, 2011). Evidence for
such extreme global warmth has amassed from a wide ar-
ray of paleoclimatic indicators for this time, including the
presence of diverse, non-marine ectothermic reptiles at the
paleolatitude of 71°N (Tarduno et al., 1998; Vandermark et
al., 2007), terrestrial plant assemblages from the high lati-
tudes of both hemispheres (Herman and Spicer, 1996) and
geochemical data that indicate sea surface temperatures of
36–42°C at 10°N and up to 30°C at 60°S (e.g., Bice et al.,
2003, 2006; Forster et al., 2007). Although climate model
investigations attribute the extreme warmth of this time to a
high partial pressure of atmospheric CO2 (from 700 to 4000
ppmv; Bice and Norris, 2002) as a result of high rates of vol-
canic degassing (Schlanger et al., 1981; Larson, 1991; Lee
and Lackey, 2015), such concentrations have been deemed
unreasonably high, suggesting that high methane (a minimum
10 times more potent greenhouse gas than CO2) may be par-
tially responsible for the peak warmth. Despite the evidence
for hot greenhouse conditions, several authors have proposed
that continental ice sheets formed during this hot greenhouse
interval and were the cause for the mid-Turonian global eu-
static change in sea level (Miller et al., 2004, 2005; Borne-
mann et al., 2008; Galeotti et al., 2009).
Compilations of deep-sea benthic foraminiferal and bulk
carbonate δ18O data reveal that the world ocean experienced
long-term warming from the late Aptian through middle
Cenomanian, maintained extremely warm temperatures
(>20°C at mid-bathyal depths) from the late Cenomanian
through Santonian, and gradually returned to cooler values
(~6–8°C at mid-bathyal depths) during the Maastrichtian
(Huber et al., 1995, 2002; Clarke and Jenkyns, 1999; Wilson
et al., 2002; Friedrich et al., 2012). Oxygen isotopic records
from surface dwelling planktonic foraminifera at south-
ern high latitudes parallel these benthic δ18O trends. The
highest planktic δ18O values occur in the late Aptian-early
Albian and Maastrichtian and the lowest values occur in
the Turonian-Santonian (Huber et al., 1995, 2002; Fassell
and Bralower, 1999; Barrera and Savin, 1999). At Falkland
Plateau DSDP Site 511, planktonic foraminifera show no
evidence of recrystallization at the micron scale. These
specimens have δ18O values that range from –4.3‰ to –4.7‰
suggesting that the upper ocean at ~60°S paleolatitude was
as warm as 30–32°C during the late Turonian (Bice et al.,
2003). Explanations for the low oxygen isotope values that
invoke mixing with δ18O-depleted freshwater runoff yield
estimates of water salinity that is too brackish to be compat-
ible with observed microfossil assemblages. On the other
hand, temperatures estimated assuming normal seawater
δ18O values are incompatible with climate models unless the
models use either improbably high pCO2 levels (≥6500 ppm)
Sci China Earth Sci   
or proscribe at least a 50% increase in oceanic poleward heat
transport relative to earlier mid-Cretaceous conditions (Bice
et al., 2003).
Recent advances in paleoclimate modeling offer potential
avenues for closing the model-data gap through consider-
ation of water vapor and biological feedbacks (Kump and
Pollard, 2008), surface emission of non-CO2 greenhouse
gases (Beerling et al., 2011), and regional increases in
ocean-heat transport (Poulsen and Zhou, 2013). With in-
creasing amounts of atmospheric pCO2 Poulsen and Zhou
(2013) coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation ex-
periments for the Cretaceous Arctic predict much reduced
winter sea ice cover at 10×pCO2 (2800 ppmv) and no sea ice
cover at 16×pCO2 (4480 ppmv). In coupled atmosphere-ice
sheet experiments for the Cenozoic, DeConto and Pollard
(2003) determined that an ice cap will not grow on the high
plateau of East Antarctica above 2.8×pCO2 (1000 ppmv),
using present day, but ice free and isostatically adjusted,
topography, (see below).
5.   Discussion: Ice sheets in Cretaceous?
Identification of a third-order sea level fall at a number of
locations worldwide within the upper part of the Collignon-
ceras woollgari Ammonite Zone of the middle-late Turonian,
or an equivalent correlative level centered around ~91.8 Ma
(with an ~0.4 Myr age uncertainty) presents a major paradox
as it occurs in what is considered the warmest interval of the
past 150 Myr and a time when polar ice caps were least likely
to have existed. It is very unlikely that any extensive ice sheet
were present at high elevations on the major continents as the
Cretaceous was a period with few high mountain ranges and
even fewer high plateaux (Hay, 2016). The only possible ex-
ception is Antarctica. The latter has been in a polar position
since the late Paleozoic. Could there have been highlands
with high enough elevations to hold ephemeral ice sheets that
can cause as much as 60–75 m of sea-level change?
DeConto and Pollard (2003) coupled global climate model
and dynamic ice-sheet model used reconstructions of Antarc-
tica based on ice-free and present day topography, with iso-
static adjustments for ice-free conditions. The maximum as-
sumed elevation of the Antarctic continent was not stated
and presumably is based on modern analogs. Nonetheless,
the model experiments indicate that a continental scale ice
cap would not grow above a threshold of 2.8×pCO2 or 780
ppmv. Most climate models have assumed at least 4×pCO2
for the mid-Cretaceous (Barron and Washington, 1985; Bar-
ron et al., 1993; Poulsen and Zhou, 2013) and a minimum
fit between high latitude Turonian paleotemperature data and
climate model experiments requires at least 16×pCO2 (4500
ppmv) (Bice et al., 2003) unless the amount of methane was
also significantly high.
Another problem is that we cannot meaningfully evaluate

Haq B U, et al.    
Cretaceous sea levels by converting δ18O values to ice-vol-
ume estimates (after correcting for the temperature compo-
nent) because it is fraught with difficulties and in practice may
not be useful in deep time, beyond providing some sense of
the long-term trends. Application of δ18O paleothermometry
to older than Pleistocene intervals for teasing out ice volume
estimates is complicated because of several reasons, includ-
ing, not knowing the past oxygen-isotopic composition of
seawater and because when ice sheets grow there is progres-
sive depletion in δ18O as elevation increases and temperatures
decrease. This implies that in early stages mean δ18O of the
ice sheets are higher than at later stages of growth. When ice
sheets shrink, without complete melting, and begin to enlarge
again, their mean isotopic values become even more difficult
to decipher. And then there are other complicating factors,
such as the pH variations and diagenetic changes that can al-
ter the isotopic signal in deep time (see discussion of δ18O vs.
ice volume in Haq (2014) and references therein).
Although the paleogeographies of Antarctica in the Creta-
ceous are as yet unknown, the DeConto-Pollard models do
imply that marine seaways may have reached the proximity
of the South Pole during the peak warming in the Late Cre-
taceous. Did this provide a source of heat that may have im-
peded ice sheet growth, or did it actually provide the addi-
tional moisture needed to precipitate more ice on higher al-
titudes nearby? The answer to this question depends a great
deal on the elevation and topography of Antarctica during the
Cretaceous.
This brings us to the issue of the potential existence of an el-
evated plateau on Antarctica in the mid- to Late Cretaceous.
Recent advances in deep tomographic imaging of the litho-
sphere/mantle transition zone have allowed new understand-
ing of the behavior of the subducted plates underneath con-
tinents (see discussion in Cloetingh and Haq (2015) and ref-
erences therein). We already know from geodynamic models
based on such images that parts of continents can rise and
subside when oceanic subducted slabs traverse underneath
the continental lithosphere. Examples from North America
and Australia that have been modeled show the long-wave
bulging and buckling that occurs (also known as dynamic to-
pography) due to these effects (e.g., Gurnis et al., 1998; Liu
et al., 2008). In this time interval in North America a surficial
topographic low migrated east together with remnants of the
subducted Farallon Plate, creating a major seaway in Western
Interior. Its far-field effect was the bulging in the Midwest
west upwards over a kilometer and subsidence along the US
East Coast (Liu et al., 2008). Similarly, modeling also shows
Australia’s ups and downs in the Cretaceous (Gurnis et al.,
1998).
In the Early Cretaceous Australia was bordered by a sub-
duction zone to the east. Initially the down-going plate pulled
down the surrounding mantle and eastern edge of Australia.
Sci China Earth Sci    7
Some 20 Myr later the plate had subducted deep enough in
its low-angle trajectory that eastern Australia was able to pop
back up. Today the continent is located north of the former
subduction site, and has dropped in elevation due to down-
ward pull in the mantle under Indonesia that is also sinking
(Gurnis et al., 1998). There are several other examples of
changing dynamic topographic effects with time elsewhere
in the world on the Earth surface based on better resolution
tomographic images and geodynamic models (Cloetingh and
Haq, 2015).
Could Antarctica have suffered such effects in the Creta-
ceous? Cloetingh and Haq (2015) have already discussed this
issue. They noted that, because ice sheets are sensitive to both
latitude and altitude, if Antarctica displayed enough tempo-
ral variations in topography to cause substantial variability
in water sequestration, it may be able to explain third-order
cyclicity in the Cretaceous. Latitudinally, Antarctica has been
in a polar position since the late Paleozoic, but the knowl-
edge of topographic variations will, of course have to wait
until we have high-resolution tomographic images of Antarc-
tica and hind-casted geodynamic modeling of the continent
has been accomplished. Only then will we be able to ascer-
tain if elevated topography could have occurred on a large
scale by mantle-related processes underneath Antarctica that
would in turn cause sequestration of water leading to major
eustatic changes.
6.   Other potential causes
Although our focus here has been on the potential of
glacio-eustasy in the hot-house climate of the Late Creta-
ceous, we also need to consider other water sequestration
mechanisms (Table 1). Periodic storage and release of
water from land (in lakes, aquifers and soil moisture) to
the ocean as a cause for sea-level variations is an idea that
has been around for a while (Hay and Leslie, 1990; Jacobs
and Sahagian, 1993), though it has been assumed that the
time scales on which this may occur were along the order
of Milankovitch scale (rather than third-order eustatic time
scales) and that it could account for only smaller amplitudes
of sea-level variations (~20 m, and at the most 40 m if all
free water was to be transferred to the ocean). It is however,
difficult to envision how regional climate changes (which
are not always in-sync with global climates) that are largely
responsible for filling and emptying lakes and aquifers on
land (as modern climatic analogies imply) would cause
global effects of any magnitude. It is also difficult to imagine
a scenario where every drop of the terrestrial water were to
be transferred to the ocean in a single climatic cycle, so the
effective amplitude of sea level variations was most likely
closer to ~20 m that would involve wet/dry groundwater
alternations. This mechanism has recently found renewed
8  
Haq B U, et al.    
favor with other workers as well (e.g., Sames et al., 2016;
Wagreich et al., 2016; Wendler and Wendler, 2016). Es-
pecially, Wendler and Wendler (2016) have argued that
both terrestrial-water transfers, as well as glacio-eustasy are
operative all the time, with the former dominating during the
greenhouse times and the latter overwhelming the former in
ice-house times. They feel that during the mid-Cretaceous
we may be seeing such a combined effect, with dominance
of terrestrial-water transfer as the operative mechanism. This
is indeed an intriguing idea and needs to be further looked
into with better argued estimates for Cretaceous pore-space
in active part of the terrestrial upper crust and mechanisms
that can actually transfer substantial amount of water from
this reservoir to the ocean and vice versa. The other question
is whether these mechanisms can operate on third-order time
scales (i.e., ~1 Myr).
The other potential water sequestration mechanism, espe-
cially relevant for the Cretaceous, is the water exchange be-
tween ocean and the mantle (Table 1). Cloetingh and Haq
(2015) have argued that by and large the Cretaceous is char-
acterized by high oceanic crustal production rates and recy-
cling in the mantle, which means high water expulsion rates
from the mantle to the ocean and high water entrainment rates
during subduction. For this mechanism to produce a net in-
crease (or decrease) of free water in the ocean container, the
time lag between expulsion and entrainment would be of cru-
cial importance. Whether this mechanism would work for
the third-order cycles still needs to be better argued and un-
derstood and the operative time scales need to be estimated.
7.   Conclusions
From the above anatomical dissection of a major eustatic
event in the Late Cretaceous we can draw a few inferences,
without reaching a final conclusion on the controlling factor
for a major sequence boundary. These inferences include:
(1) there was a widespread third-order sea level fall (KTu4)
in the late Turonian that is centered at ~91.8 Ma with a po-
tential error range of ~0.4 Myr; (2) the amplitude of the sea
level fall varies at different locations depending on local tec-
tonics; (3) together with the late Cenomanian, the Turonian
was a time of peak warmth and a long-term sea level high;
(4) paleoclimatic modeling shows that ice volume variations
seem very unlikely to have forced the sea level variations
seen at this time, although this causal factor cannot be ruled
out completely; (5) Antarctic highlands (if they existed in the
Late Cretaceous) would be the only place one could sequester
enough water as ice to cause global sea level falls. To be
able to rule out ephemeral ice sheets on an Antarctic plateau
requires detailed tomographic imaging of this continent, fol-
lowed by geodynamic modeling. This is not available at this
time; (6) other mechanisms such as transference of ground
Sci China Earth Sci   
water to the ocean and entrainment and release of water from
the mantle to the oceanic container are intriguing and need to
be explored further to prove their efficacy at the third-order
time scales.
Thus, the operative reason(s) for the KTu4 event (and also
other major sea level events in the Late Cretaceous) remain
unresolved at this time, though some important leads are at
hand. It is most likely that in the end it may turn out that
sea-level fluctuations during the greenhouse times are due to a
combination of several factors influencing eustasy rather than
one dominant source.
Acknowledgements     The authors are very grateful to the organizers
and hosts of the IGCP 609 International Workshop on Climate and Envi-
ronmental Evolution in the Mesozoic Greenhouse World, held in Nanjing,
China from 5−11 September 2015, for putting together a highly stimulating
and most enjoyable meeting. The authors also thank two anonymous review-
ers for their contributions toward improvement of this paper. This paper is
a contribution to IGCP Project 609 “Climate-environmental deteriorations
during greenhouse phases: Causes and consequences of short-term Creta-
ceous sea-level changes”.
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