European Arid Anomaly Explained With Southward Drift of Eurasia During the Late Jurassic Polar Shift

Abstract

The sedimentary successions of several basins in Europe show evidence of widespread Late Jurassic aridification that is considered a long-standing conundrum in paleoclimate modeling. The distinctive feature of this event is that it appears concentrated in a discrete time interval between the Kimmeridgian (Late Jurassic) and the Berriasian (Early Cretaceous), and that it extended to eastern and southern-central Asia for a total of ∼10 Mkm² in roughly the same time interval. Climate modeling has not provided a convincing explanation for this event. We compiled and reviewed paleomagnetic data from several continents including Adria, the African promontory, showing that this large-scale aridification was produced by an abrupt and transient southward migration of Eurasia toward arid tropical latitudes, while its demise coincided with a “retromotion” to more humid northern latitudes in the Early Cretaceous. This movement is part of a global plate motion event, most likely due to True Polar Wander, that profoundly affected the depositional environments, the ecosystems, and the architecture of sedimentary basins worldwide.