Paleoenvironmental implications of mineralogic and geochemical data in the western Florida Straits ( Leg 77, Deep Sea Drilling Project).

Abstract

Concludes: 1) transition of lowermost Cretaceous continental to marine sedimentation is marked by a clay evaporitic stage; 2) predominance of detrital clay assemblages is indicative of hot and variably humid continental climate until the early late Cenozoic; 3) Tectonic destabilization of the margins of Gulf of Mexico occurred at different periods; 4) successive developments of confined perimarine basins occurred from the eariest Cretaceous until the Miocene, chiefly in the Florida area; 5) occasionally, volcanic activity influenced the clay mineralogy and mainly the geochemistry; and 6) the argillaceous diagenesis is weak.-from Authors