A detailed investigation of a glauconite bed within the Late Cretaceous Bryozoan Limestone Formation of the Bagh Group in central India, as well as the study of existing records, reveals the existence of a ‘glauconitic sea’ along the margins of the Palaeo-Tethys Ocean during the Late Cretaceous Epoch. The authigenic green mineral formed abundantly on shallow seafloors unlike in its modern, deep-sea counterpart. We present an integrated petrographical, geochemical and mineralogical investigation of the glauconite within Late Cretaceous transgressive deposits to highlight its unique geochemistry with moderate Fe2O3 and high Al2O3, SiO2, MgO as well as K2O contents. X-ray diffractional parameters identify the ‘evolved to high evolved’ nature of the glauconite while Mössbauer spectroscopic study reveals the dominance of Fe3+ compared to Fe2+ in the atomic structure. The rare earth elements (REE) pattern of glauconite reveals moderate light-REE/heavy-REE (LREE/HREE) fractionation and weak negative Eu anomaly. The Ce anomaly of the glauconite indicates a sub-oxic diagenetic condition. We propose that Late Cretaceous glauconites formed within a shallow marine depositional setting across the Tethyan belt because of enhanced supply of K, Si, Al, Fe, Mg cations through continental weathering under the extant greenhouse climate.

The northern Wanganui Basin, New Zealand, is one of the key global sites for understanding marine cyclic sedimentation during the Quaternary. This paper presents the first evidence of marine cyclic sedimentation from its central-southern parts. Sedimentological, micropalaeontological and palynological analyses on a 280-m-deep borehole encountered units dating back to MIS 10. The sequence includes four marine cycles spanning MIS 9–5, which are overlain by terrestrial fluvial aggradation surfaces dating from MIS 4–2. Each marine unit represents a progressively shallowing depositional environment from the mid-shelf to coastal plain. This is overlain by a terrestrial sequence of lowstand fluvial terraces. Localized fault movements appear to have influenced the sedimentary character of the sequence during MIS 7a and 5e producing basement highs which provided protection to the shoreline. The cyclothems described in this paper now extend the already extensive, previously described record from MIS 17–10 to produce a combined eustatic record of Quaternary sea level change within the basin to MIS 5. They also provide an excellent example of the sedimentary response of a coastal basin to a progressive loss of sedimentation accommodation space.

Lower Triassic marine strata in Spitsbergen accumulated on a mid-to-high latitude ramp in which high-energy foreshore and shoreface facies passed offshore into sheet sandstones of probable hyperpycnite origin. More distal facies include siltstones, shales and dolomitic limestones. Carbon isotope chemostratigraphy comparison allows improved age dating of the Boreal sections and shows a significant hiatus in the upper Spathian. Two major deepening events, in earliest Griesbachian and late Smithian time, are separated by shallowing-upwards trends that culminated in the Dienerian and Spathian substages. The redox record, revealed by changes in bioturbation, palaeoecology, pyrite framboid content and trace metal concentrations, shows anoxic phases alternating with intervals of better ventilation. Only Dienerian–early Smithian time witnessed persistent oxygenation that was sufficient to support a diverse benthic community. The most intensely anoxic, usually euxinic, conditions are best developed in offshore settings, but at times euxinia also developed in upper offshore settings where it is even recorded in hyperpycnite and storm-origin sandstone beds: an extraordinary facet of Spitsbergen's record. The euxinic phases do not track relative water depth changes. For example, the continuous shallowing upwards from the Griesbachian to lower Dienerian was witness to several euxinic phases separated by intervals of more oxic, bioturbated sediments. It is likely that the euxinia was controlled by climatic oscillations rather than intra-basinal factors. It remains to be seen if all the anoxic phases found in Spitsbergen are seen elsewhere, although the wide spread of anoxic facies in the Smithian/Spathian boundary interval is clearly a global event.