Orbitally forced high-frequency sea-level changes reflected in uppermost Cenomanian successions of Central Europe

Integrated bio-, chemo-, event and sequence stratigraphic correlations of Upper Cenomanian (M.-geslinianum- and N.-juddii-zonal) successions in several basins around the Mid-European Island (Münsterland, Lower Saxony, Subhercynian, Saxonian and Danubian Cretaceous basins) reveal a conspicuous sedimentary cyclicity that reflects high-frequency sea-level changes paced by long and short eccentricity (l-ecc. and s-ecc.) cycles of the Milankovitch band. Resting on a conspicuous mid-Late Cenomanian unconformity of 3rd-order (SB Ce 5), the following depositional sequence DS Ce-Tu 1 consists of three high-frequency sequences of 405 kyr up to its terminal sequence boundary, i.e., SB Tu 1 in the Lower–Middle Turonian boundary interval. The lower l-ecc. cycle of DS Ce-Tu 1 ranges up to the Cenomanian–Turonian boundary (CTB) and consist of four shallowing-upward cycles of ca. 100 kyr in stratigraphically complete basinal successions; sections located towards the basin margins are commonly missing the lowermost s-ecc. cycle, reflecting the lack of accommodation associated with the sea-level fall and lowstand across SB Ce 5. A major marine onlap started with the second s-ecc. cycle that is associated with the inter-regional plenus Event. Up-section, two additional shallowing-upward s-ecc. cycles up to the CTB record the infilling of the accommodation generated by the plenus Transgression. A moderate unconformity at the top of the uppermost s-ecc. cycle terminates the latest Cenomanian high-frequency sequence that represents a l-ecc. with four s-ecc. (405 vs. 100 kyr) cycles. Another major transgressive pulse at the base of the following high-frequency sequence culminated in a global earliest Turonian maximum flooding interval at ca. 93.8 Ma.