Global sedimentary hiatuses are well-documented in ancient pelagic sediment, and include Paleocene, Eocene-Oligocene boundary, and Miocene hiatuses. Less clear is the extent of these hiatuses in continental margin settings. Here, we test the hypothesis that global hiatuses evident in pelagic sections are also manifested in siliciclastic basins of continental margins globally. We choose to focus on the Eocene greenhouse to Oligocene icehouse transition, a period that is remarkable as the most profound climatic transition of the Cenozoic, and a period characterized by extreme cooling and expansion of polar ice, sea-level fall, and global changes to ocean circulation. We perform a comprehensive review of marine siliciclastic basin literature to produce a global inventory of Eocene-Oligocene unconformities. We find evidence for a prominent Eocene-Oligocene unconformity in sedimentary basins along the margins of every continent. The globally-widespread distribution of unconformities suggests global controls on their development. Furthermore, Eocene-Oligocene erosion surfaces are common in shelf settings, as well as in deep-water settings from slope to basin floor, indicating unconformity-generating processes across a wide range of water depths. Global sea-level fall may have driven subaerial shelf exposure and erosive down-slope processes including submarine canyon cutting and mass wasting. Meanwhile, the intensification of deep-ocean thermohaline currents potentially induced erosion of not only pelagic successions, but also of clastic successions. Overall, our documentation of globally-widespread Eocene-Oligocene unconformities suggests global controls, of which the extreme climatic and oceanographic changes of the greenhouse to icehouse transition seem particularly compelling.

中文翻译：

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碎屑沉积盆地的全球始新世-渐新世不整合面


全球沉积中断在古老的中上层沉积物中得到了很好的记录，包括古新世、始新世-渐新世边界和中新世中断。不太清楚这些间断在大陆边缘环境中的程度。在这里，我们检验了这样一个假设，即在中上层剖面中明显的全球中断也表现在全球大陆边缘的硅碎屑盆地中。我们选择关注始新世温室到渐新世冰室的过渡，这一时期是新生代最深刻的气候过渡时期，也是以极地冰极度冷却和扩张、海平面下降和海洋环流全球变化为特征的时期。我们对海洋硅碎屑盆地文献进行了全面回顾，以编制始新世-渐新世不整合面的全球清单。我们发现在每个大陆边缘的沉积盆地中都存在明显的始新世-渐新世不整合的证据。不整合面的全球广泛分布表明全球对其发展进行了控制。此外，始新世-渐新世侵蚀面在大陆架环境中以及从斜坡到盆地底部的深水环境中很常见，这表明在广泛的水深范围内会产生不整合面。全球海平面下降可能推动了地下大陆架暴露和侵蚀性下坡过程，包括海底峡谷切割和质量浪费。同时，深海温盐流的增强不仅可能引起中上层演替的侵蚀，还可能导致碎屑演替的侵蚀。 总体而言，我们对全球普遍的始新世-渐新世不整合面的记录表明了全球控制，其中温室向冰室过渡的极端气候和海洋学变化似乎特别引人注目。