Frits Hilgen

Utrecht University | UU · Department of Earth Sciences

The main cycles of Earth's eccentricity as recorded in paleoclimate archives signify 2nd order terms, combining two g-frequencies associated with the precession of perihelia of the inner planets and Jupiter. However, many weaker cycles are present and may be documented as well. Here we report on a thus far unnoticed ~200-kyr cycle observed in rhyth...

Over the past decade the integration of astrochronology and U/Pb thermal ionization mass spectrometry dating has resulted in major improvements in the Devonian time scale, which allowed for accurate determination of ages and rates of change in this critical interval of Earth history. However, widely different durations have been published for the M...

Aggradation and fluvial incision controlled by downstream base‐level changes at timescales of 10 to 500 kyr is incorporated in classic sequence stratigraphic models. However, upstream climate control on sediment supply and discharge variability causes fluvial incision and aggradation as well. Orbital forcing often regulates climate change at 10 to...

Enhanced winter precipitation over the Mediterranean Sea at times of minimum precession and maximum obliquity, that is, times of enhanced insolation seasonality, could provide freshwater required to form orbitally paced sedimentary cycles across the Mediterranean, offering a possible alternative to monsoonal runoff. We investigate the sources of th...

Cyclic sedimentary patterns in the marine record of the Mediterranean Sea have beenconsistently correlated with orbitally-driven shifts in climate. Freshwater input driven by the Africansummer monsoon is thought to be the main control of such hydrological changes, where the runoff signalis transferred from the eastern to the western Mediterranean....

Cyclostratigraphy is an important tool for understanding astronomical climate forcing and reading geological time in sedimentary sequences, provided that an imprint of insolation variations caused by Earth’s orbital eccentricity, obliquity and/or precession is preserved (Milankovitch forcing). Numerous stratigraphic and paleoclimate studies have ap...

.m file from Supplements of the publication

Astronomical forcing associated with Earth’s orbital and inclination parameters (Milankovitch forcing) exerts a major control on climate as recorded in the sedimentary rock record, but its influence in deep time is largely unknown. Banded iron formations, iron-rich marine sediments older than 1.8 billion years, offer unique insight into the early E...

The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC; 5.97–5.33 Ma) is considered an extreme environmental event driven by changes in climate and tectonics, which affected global ocean salinity and shaped the biogeochemical composition of the Mediterranean Sea. Yet, after more than 50 years of research, MSC stratigraphy remains controversial. Recent studies agree th...

The geologic time scale serves as an essential instrument for reconstructing Earth history. Astrochronology, linking regular sedimentary alternations to theoretical quasi-periodic astronomical rhythms, often provides the highest resolution age models for strata that underlie the time scale. Although various methods for testing astronomically-tuned...

The Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) approach to define stage boundaries leaves the unit or body of the stage undefined. At the same time, previous arguments against the use of unit-stratotypes have been invalidated for the younger Cenozoic part of the geological record through the revolutionary advance in integrated high-resolution strat...

While an integrated approach to stratigraphy utilizing several independent dating methods is clearly important, the integration is yet commonly done in a qualitative and little reproducible rather than a rigorous quantitative way. Of these methods, astrochronology is one of the most important techniques for constructing time scales of Earth history...

Sub-Milankovitch rhythmic features in sedimentary records have been reported from throughout geological time. However, their origin remains enigmatic, in particular during so-called greenhouse periods in Earth's history. To better understand such short-term climatic changes, we sampled two 3-m-thick intervals of early Devonian hemipelagic carbonate...

The early–middle Eocene (ca. 56–41 Ma) is recorded in the pelagic Scaglia Rossa and Variegata Formations of the Umbria-Marche Basin (central Italy). Geochemical and mag- netostratigraphic alignment between the Bottaccione section (Gubbio, central Italy) and the Smirra core (Cagli, central Italy) allows us to generate a continuous and well- preserve...

Palaeoclimate reconstructions of periods with warm climates and high atmospheric CO2 concentrations are crucial for developing better projections of future climate change. Deep-ocean1,2 and high-latitude3 palaeotemperature proxies demonstrate that the Eocene epoch (56 to 34 million years ago) encompasses the warmest interval of the past 66 million...

The climatic origin of astronomically induced sedimentary cycles in the Mediterranean and adjacent areas during the late Neogene and Quaternary remains puzzling; as cycles have been linked to concomitant but seasonally opposite changes in African summer monsoon precipitation (Eastern Mediterranean sapropels) and Atlantic regulated winter-precipitat...

Cyclostratigraphy and astronomical tuning utilize the imprint of quasi-cyclic insolation changes in geological records to establish chronologies. In this context, filtering of time series in specific frequency bands is commonly applied to extract information on astronomical forcing from geological datasets. This approach is performed on specific in...

We provide lithological, sedimentological and micropalaeontological descriptions of 39 sections and boreholes crossing the upper Miocene deposits of the Rifian Corridor. These deposits represent the sedimentary remnants of the marine gateway that connected the Atlantic to the Mediterranean in the late Miocene. Results from these 39 sites were adopt...

Fluvial systems in which peat formation occurs are typified by autogenic processes such as river meandering, crevasse-splaying and channel avulsion. Nevertheless, autogenic processes cannot satisfactorily explain the repetitive nature and lateral continuity of many coal seams (compacted peats). The fluvial lower Palaeocene Tullock Member of the For...

Pelagic sediments from the subtropical South Atlantic Ocean contain geographically extensive Oligocene ooze and chalk layers that consist almost entirely of the calcareous nannofossil Braarudosphaera. Poor recovery and the lack of precise dating of these horizons in previous studies has limited the understanding of the number of acmes, their timing...

We examine the response of the Indian and East Asian summer monsoons to separate precession and obliquity forcing, using a set of fully coupled high-resolution models for the first time: EC-Earth, GFDL CM2.1, CESM and HadCM3. We focus on the effect of insolation changes on monsoon precipitation and underlying circulation changes, and find strong mo...

Astronomical tuning of sediment sequences requires both unambiguous cycle pattern recognition in climate proxy records and astronomical solutions, as well as independent information about the phase relationship between these two. Here we present two different astronomically tuned age models for the Oligocene–Miocene transition (OMT) from Integrated...

The Rifian Corridor was one of the Mediterranean–Atlantic seaways that progressively restricted and caused the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC). Many key questions concerning the controls on the onset, progression and termination of the MSC remain unanswered mainly because the evolution of these seaways is poorly constrained. Uncertainties about the...

Understanding the link between sedimentation and fault kinematics is important for reconstructing the evolution of sedimentary basins. The relationship between the mechanics of creating accommodation space and the sediment supply in asymmetric extensional basins is critical for quantifying their syn- and post-rift evolution, but is not yet well und...

The Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) is perceived as an environmental crisis governed by climatic and tectonic controls, affecting global oceans’ salinity and shaping the Mediterranean Sea’s biochemical composition. Recently drilled offshore wells in the Levant Basin retrieved a sedimentary record of the deep-basin Mediterranean MSC salt deposits an...

The Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) is perceived as an environmental crisis governed by climatic and tectonic controls, affecting global oceans' salinity and shaping the Mediterranean Sea's biochemical composition. Recently drilled offshore wells in the Levant Basin retrieved a sedimentary record of the deep-basin Mediterranean MSC salt deposits an...

Astronomical tuning of sediment sequences requires both unambiguous cycle-pattern recognition in climate proxy records and astronomical solutions, and independent information about the phase relationship between these two. Here we present two astronomically tuned age models for the Oligocene-Miocene Transition (OMT) from Integrated Ocean Drilling P...

A significant discrepancy of up to 0.6 Myr exists between radio-isotopically calibrated and astronomically tuned time scales of the late Eocene-Oligocene. We explore the possible causes of this discrepancy through the acquisition of "high-precision" ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U dating of zircons from 11 volcanic ash beds from the Umbria-Marche sedimentary succession...

The role of climate change in driving alluvial-fan sedimentation is hard to assess in pre-Quaternary successions, for which detailed chronologies and climate-proxy records cannot be easily established. In the Teruel Basin (Spain), high-resolution (10⁴-10⁵ years) chronological and palaeoclimatic information was derived by orbital tuning of Late Mioc...

A continuous record across the "Braarudosphaera chalks" was recovered from mid-Oligocene (~30-27Ma) deep-sea sediments in the subtropical South Atlantic Ocean and has been studied in detail. This stratigraphic section from ODP Site 1264 (Walvis Ridge) documents a succession of several chalky layers that consist almost completely of Braarudosphaera...

Pelagic sections of the Umbria-Marche Basin, in the Northern Apennines (Italy), have provided key geological archives for studying critical intervals of early Paleogene time. In addition to classical sections, the Smirra Coring project provides a new record of relatively undisturbed sediments (~ 120 m from 4 overlapping holes) of the upper Scaglia...

The cyclic sedimentary record of the late Miocene Mediterranean shows a clear transition from open marine to restricted conditions and finally to evaporitic environments associated with the Messinian Salinity Crisis. This evolution has been attributed to changes in Mediterranean–Atlantic connectivity and regional climate, which has a strong precess...

The factors controlling sedimentary cyclicity in deltaic systems are a subject of intense debate, and more research, in different deltaic environments and time periods, is needed to better understand the possible mechanisms. Offshore and Pleistocene case studies are more common than proximal and more ancient, greenhouse-climate examples. Furthermor...

The connection between the Mediterranean and the open ocean during the Messinian and the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) remains largely unsolved; however, such a connection is required to supply the salts required for the formation of the thick evaporite successions deposited during the MSC. A potential candidate for a Mediterranean-Atlantic conne...

Here we present an algorithm for the automated adjustment and optimisation of correlations between proxy data and an orbital tuning target (or similar datasets as e.g. ice models) for the R environment (R Development Core Team 2008), building on the 'astrochron' package (Meyers et al.2014). The basis of this approach is an initial tuning on orbital...

The Rifian Corridor was a seaway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea during the late Miocene. The seaway progressively closed, leading to the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Mediterranean Sea. Despite the key palaeogeographic importance of the Rifian Corridor, patterns of sediment transport within the seaway have not been thorough...

Significance The Antarctic ice cap waxed and waned on astronomical time scales throughout the Oligo-Miocene time interval. We quantify geometries of Antarctic ice age cycles, as expressed in a new climate record from the South Atlantic Ocean, to track changing dynamics of the unipolar icehouse climate state. We document numerous ∼110-thousand-year-...

The early-middle Miocene, marked by the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO) followed by the Middle Miocene Climate Transition (MMCT) towards cooler temperatures, represents a crucial period in Earth's climate evolution. To understand this episode and reconstruct its origin and the regional impact of the observed global changes, it is critical th...

The oceans at the time of the Cenomanian–Turonian transition were abruptly perturbed by a period of bottom-water anoxia. This led to the brief but widespread deposition of black organic-rich shales, such as the Livello Bonarelli in the Umbria–Marche Basin (Italy). Despite intensive studies, the origin and exact timing of this event are still debate...

Multiple spectral analysis and statistical techniques such as: Continuous Wavelet Transform, Evolutive Harmonic Analysis, Multi-taper method and Average Spectral Misfit, were used in concert to reach an optimal astronomical interpretation. The Požár-CS section shows distinctly varying sediment accumulation rates. The Lochkovian (essentially equival...

Few astronomically calibrated high-resolution (≤5 kyr) climate records exist that span the Oligocene–Miocene time interval. Notably, available proxy records show responses varying in amplitude at frequencies related to astronomical forcing, and the main pacemakers of global change on astronomical time-scales remain debated. Here we present newly ge...

The early Eocene represents a time of major changes in the global carbon cycle and fluctuations in global temperatures on both short- and long-time scales. These perturbations of the ocean-atmosphere system have been linked to orbital forcing and changes in net organic carbon burial, but accurate age models are required to disentangle the various f...

The oceans at the time of the Cenomanian-Turonian transition were abruptly disturbed by a period of bottomwater anoxia. This led to the brief but widespread deposition of black organic-rich shales, such as the Livello Bonarelli in the Umbria-Marche Basin (Italy). Despite intense studies, the origin and exact timing of this event are still debated....

The influence of obliquity, the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis, on incoming solar radiation at low latitudes is small, yet many tropical and subtropical palaeoclimate records reveal a clear obliquity signal. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain this signal, such as the remote influence of high-latitude glacials, the remote effect o...

Orbital forcing is a key climate driver over multi-millennial timescales. In particular, monsoon systems are thought to be driven by orbital cyclicity, especially by precession. Here, we analyse the impact of orbital forcing on global climate with a particular focus on the North African monsoon, by carrying out an ensemble of 22 equally spaced (one...

There is strong proxy and model evidence of precession- and obliquity-induced changes in the freshwater budget over the Mediterranean Sea and its borderlands, yet explanations for these changes vary greatly. We investigate the separate precession and obliquity forcing of the freshwater budget over the Mediterranean using a high-resolution coupled c...

Drill cores are essential for the study of deep-sea sediments and on-land sites because often no suitable outcrop is available or accessible. These cores form the backbone of stratigraphical studies using and combining various dating techniques. Cyclostratigraphy is usually based on fast and inexpensive measurements of physical sediment properties....

Marine gateways play a critical role in the exchange of water, heat, salt and nutrients between oceans and seas. As a result, changes in gateway geometry can significantly alter both the pattern of global ocean circulation and associated heat transport and climate, as well as having a profound impact on local environmental conditions. Mediterranean...

Orbital forcing is a key climate driver over multi-millennial timescales. In particular, monsoon systems are thought to be driven by orbital cyclicity, especially by precession. Here we analyse the impact of orbital forcing on global climate with a particular focus on the North African monsoon, by carrying out a ensemble of 22 atmosphere-ocean-vege...

Coal-bearing fluvial sedimentation is generally thought to be dominated by autogenic processes that are processes intrinsic to the sedimentary system. Ongoing research however suggests that several fluvial processes such as floodplain inundation and avulsion, can also be controlled by external forcing such as orbital climate change. Still, the exac...

Astrochronology is fundamental to many paleoclimate studies, but a standard statistical test has yet to be established for validating stand-alone astronomically-tuned time scales (those lacking detailed independent time control) against their astronomical-insolation tuning curves. Shackleton et al. [1995] proposed that the modulation of precession'...

The influence of obliquity, the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis, on incoming solar radiation at low latitudes is small, yet many tropical and subtropical paleoclimate records reveal a clear obliquity signal. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain this signal, such as the remote influence of high-latitude glacials, the remote effect of...

The construction of a permanent astronomical time scale for the Paleocene tuned to stable 405-kyr eccentricity is hampered by uncertainties in the number of eccentricity-related cycles between the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary and the Early Late Paleocene Event (ELPE) situated just below the Selandian-Thanetian boundary. Here we re-examine a...

Drill cores are essential for the study of deep-sea sediments and on-land sites because often no suitable outcrop is available or accessible. These cores form the backbone of stratigraphical studies using and combining various dating techniques. Cyclostratigraphy is usually based on fast and inexpensive measurements of physical sediment properties....

Several orbitally tuned Miocene sedimentary sequences around the Mediterranean contain abundant intercalated volcanic ash beds. These sequences provide the rare opportunity to directly compare radioisotopic dating methods with independent and accurate deposition ages derived from astrochronology. We present a large data set (N=16,n=166) of zircon U...

The Milankovitch theory of climate change is widely accepted, but the registration of the climate changes in the stratigraphic record and their use in building high-resolution astronomically tuned timescales has been disputed due to the complex and fragmentary nature of the stratigraphic record. However, results of time series analysis and consiste...

We investigate, for the first time, the response of the North African summer monsoon to separate precession and obliquity forcings using a high-resolution state-of-the-art coupled general circulation model, EC-Earth. Our aim is to better understand the mechanisms underlying the astronomical forcing of this low-latitude climate system in detail. The...

Deep marine successions of early Campanian age from DSDP (Deep Sea Drilling Project) site 516F drilled at low paleolatitudes in the South Atlantic reveal distinct sub-Milankovitch variability in addition to precession, obliquity and eccentricity-related variations. Elemental abundance ratios point to a similar climatic origin for these variations a...

Orbital tuning and understanding climate response to astronomical forcing in the Miocene require detailed knowledge of the effect of tidal dissipation (Td) and dynamical ellipticity (dE) on astronomical solutions used to compute insolation and orbital target curves for paleoclimatic studies. These Earth parameters affect precession and obliquity; t...

The rhythmically bedded limestone–marl alternations in the coastal cliffs of Sopelana and Zumaia in the Basque country, northern Spain, permit testing and refining of existing Maastrichtian chronologies (latest Cretaceous). The recently established astronomical time scale for the late Maastrichtian at Zumaia is extended into C31n with the integrate...

Uncertainties in the ages of the K–Pg boundary and the Fish Canyon sanidine (FCs) Ar–Ar sanidine dating standard, and in the number and tuning of 405-kyr eccentricity-related cycles, hamper the construction of a reliable tuned time scale for the Palaeogene, a critical time period marked by the occurrence of hyperthermals and the onset of ice-house...