One of the new directions in the field of Cretaceous research is to elucidate the mechanism of the sedimentary transition from the Cretaceous black shales to oceanic red beds. A chemical sequential extraction method was applied to these two types of rocks from southern Tibet to investigate the burial records of reactive iron. Results indicate that carbonate-associated iron and pyrite are relatively enriched in the black shales, but depleted or absent in red beds. The main feature of the reactive iron in the red beds is relative enrichment of iron oxides （largely hematite）, which occurred during syn-depostion or early diagenesis. The ratio between iron oxides and the total iron indicates an oxygen-enriched environment for red bed deposition. A comparison between the reactive iron burial records and proxies of paleo-productivity suggests that paleo-productivity decreases when the ratio between iron oxides and the total iron increases in the red beds. This phenomenon could imply that the relationship between marine redox and productivity might be one of the reasons for the sedimentary transition from Cretaceous black shale to oceanic red bed deposition.
The mechanism of sedimentary transition from the Cretaceous black shales to the oceanic red beds is a new and important direction of Cretaceous research. Chemical sequential extraction is applied to study the burial records of reactive phosphorus in the black shale of the Gyabula Formation and oceanic red beds of the Chuangde Formation, Southern Tibet. Results indicate that the principal reactive phosphorus species is the authigenic and carbonate-associated phosphorus （CAP） in the Gyabula Formation and iron oxides-associated phosphorus （FeP） in the Chuangde Formation which accounts for more than half of their own total phosphorus content. While the authigenic and carbonate-associated phosphorus （CAP） is almost equal in the two Formations; the iron oxidesassociated phosphorus is about 1.6 times higher in the Chuangde Formation than that in the Gyabula Formation resulting in a higher content of the total phosphorus in the Chuangde Formation. According to the observations on the marine phosphorus cyde in Modern Ocean, it is found that preferential burial and regeneration of reactive phosphorus corresponds to highly oxic and reducing conditions, respectively, leading to the different distribution of phosphorus in these two distinct type of marine sediments. It is the redox-sensitive behavior of phosphorus cycle to the different redox conditions in the ocean and the controlling effects of phosphorus to the marine production that stimulate the local sedimentary transition from the Cretaceous black shale to the oceanic red beds.
