Mochras borehole revisited: a new global standard for Early Jurassic earth history

The Early Jurassic epoch was a time of extreme environmental change: there are well-documented examples of rapid transitions from cold, or even glacial, climates to super greenhouse events, the latter characterized worldwide by hugely enhanced organic carbon burial, multiple large isotopic anomalies, global sea-level change, and mass extinction (Price, 1999; Hesselbo et al., 2000; Jenkyns, 2010; Korte and Hesselbo, 2011). These icehouse–greenhouse events not only reflect changes in the global climate system but are also thought to have had significant influence on the evolution of Jurassic marine biota (e.g. van de Schootbrugge et al., 2005; Fraguas et al., 2012). Furthermore, the events may serve as analogues for present-day and future environmental transitions.