Eustatic, tectonic, and climatic signatures in the Lower Cretaceous siliciclastic succession on the Eastern Russian Platform

• The comparison between global and regional sea level curves was undertaken.
• The predominance of eustasy relies on the intervals of coincidence of two curves.
• Tectonic activity dominates at the stages of noncoincidence.
• “The cold snap” is identified in the Late Aptian sedimentary sequences.

A methodical approach to identifying major abiotic events in the siliciclastic succession accumulated in the shallow epicontinental basin on the Eastern Russian Platform during the Early Cretaceous is presented. On the basis of a reliable chronostratigraphic framework a comparison between global and regional sea level curves was undertaken. The intervals during which the global and regional sea level curve trends are similar correspond to a predominance of eustasy in the particular basin. Alternatively, tectonic activity dominates during intervals when there is no similarity between the trends of the global and regional sea level curves. Three intervals of noncoincidences of trends of these two curves matched with major tectonic events that took place within the Eastern Russian Platform in the Early Cretaceous: the Early Hauterivian tectonic uplift, subsequent Late Hauterivian subsidence and the Late Albian uplift. The main consequences of the tectonic activity were two large regional unconformities and hiati. The comparison of main global and regional sea level trends also reveals major climatic events. “The cold snaps” that occurred during the Early Cretaceous greenhouse world (Hu et al., 2012) coincided with simultaneous global and regional sea level lowstands, peak shallowing of the basin and the almost complete absence of sediments. “The cold snap” is identified in the Late Aptian sedimentary sequences on the Eastern Russian Platform.