Evidence for long-term climate change in Upper Devonian strata of the central Appalachians

Brezinski, David K.; Cecil, C. Blaine; Skema, Viktoras; Kertis, Carla A.

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2009.10.010

Cited by 35 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Portions of the Late Devonian have recently been identified as icehouse episodes with evidence of glacial ice in both South America and the Appalachians (Caputo, 1985;Crowell, 1999;Brezinski et al, 2008Brezinski et al, , 2009Brezinski et al, , 2010. Current state of knowledge suggests that the extent and volume of Late Devonian ice was likely smaller than that in Carboniferous and Late Cenozoic icehouse times (Stanley, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sequence stratigraphic hierarchy of the Upper Devonian Foreknobs Formation, central Appalachian Basin, USA: Evidence for transitional greenhouse to icehouse conditions

McClung

Eriksson

Terry

et al. 2013

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tThe Foreknobs Formation (Upper Devonian; Upper Frasnian to basal Famennian) comprises the uppermost marine strata of the progradational "Catskill clastic wedge" of the south-central Appalachian Mountains (VirginiaWest Virginia; USA). The Foreknobs Formation consists of 14 lithofacies arranged in four facies associations which record the following depositional settings: 1) storm-dominated distal to proximal offshore to shoreface (facies association A); 2) sharp-based conglomeratic shoreface (facies association B); 3) fluvial redbed (facies association C); and 4) incised-valley fill (IVF; facies association D). Vertical juxtaposition and stacking patterns of lithofacies and facies associations permit recognition of a hierarchy of three scales of cyclicity. Up to 70 short-term 5th-order cycles, each averaging~65 kyr, consist of coarsening-upward parasequences of stormdominated offshore marine facies in the distal setting which correspond to high frequency (unconformity bound) sequences (HFS) of fluvial redbed strata overlain by offshore marine strata in the proximal setting. These facies relationships are a consequence of 10-15 m of sea-level fluctuations. Up to 12 intermediate-term 4th-order cycles, each averaging~375 kyr, consist of stacked 5th-order cycles. The 4th-order cycles are bounded by regressive surfaces of marine erosion (RSME) at the base of sharp-based conglomeratic shoreface sandstones in the distal setting that correspond with paleosols in the proximal setting. In some cases, the 5th-order cycles within each 4th-order cycle exhibit stacking patterns indicative of increasing or decreasing accommodation space. These facies relationships are a consequence of 25-35 m of sea-level fluctuations. Three complete and portions of two additional 3rd-order cycles, each averaging~1.12 Myr, consist of stacked 4th-order cycles. The 3rd-order sea-level trends reflected in the Foreknobs Formation are nearly identical to published eustatic sealevel curves. Incised-valley fills are present at one of the 3rd-order cycle boundaries and are a consequence of a 35-45 m sea-level fluctuation. The amplitudes of the inferred sea-level fluctuations are comparable to the expansion and contraction of ice volumes within the current Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets which suggests glacioeustasy was the primary control on sea-level fluctuations and cyclicity within the Foreknobs Formation. Such an interpretation is consistent with knowledge of Devonian climate, transitioning from Middle Devonian greenhouse to Late Devonian icehouse, as indicated by evidence of glaciation during parts of the Late Devonian in South America and the Appalachians.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sequence stratigraphic hierarchy of the Upper Devonian Foreknobs Formation, central Appalachian Basin, USA: Evidence for transitional greenhouse to icehouse conditions

McClung

Eriksson

Terry

et al. 2013

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…10G), are found in off shore ma rine de pos its of the Cleve land Shale in Ken tucky (Ettensohn et al, 2007). This ice-rafted de bris ap par ently came from con ti nen tal gla ciers in the Ap pa la chian moun tains to the east, a re gion that was as close to the equa tor as 30°S and thus is ev i dence of the in tensity of the Late Famennian gla cial cool ing (Brezinski et al, 2009(Brezinski et al, , 2010. Ex tinc tions as so ci ated with the max i mum ex pansion phase of the Famennian gla ci ation took place in two pulses: the first pulse oc curred in the ma rine realm at about 360 Ma in the Late Famennian, is dated to the Mid dle praesulcata Cono dont Zone at the Hangenberg Black Shale ho ri zon (Kai ser et al, 2006).…”

Section: A Comparison Of Cenozoic and Late Paleozoic Global Coolingmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Late Devonian (Frasnian/Famenian) mass extinction: a proposed test of the glaciation hypothesis

McGhee

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this pa per it is agued that Late Frasnian global cool ing was the first step in the on set of the Late Pa leo zoic Ice Age, and that a Late Frasnian gla ci ation ex isted that was anal o gous to the early Oligocene (Oi-1) gla ci ation that took place in the first step of global cool ing in the on set of the Ce no zoic Ice Age. It is here pro posed that de fin i tive sedimentological ev i dence for the exis tence of Late Frasnian gla ci ation, like the Oi-1 gla ci ation, would be the dis cov ery of ice-rafted de bris in ma rine sed i ments of Late Frasnian age sim i lar to the ice-rafted de bris found in Oi-1 ma rine sed i ments (Zachos et al., 1992;Ehrmann and Mackensen, 1992). Rather than metre-to decimetre-sized ice-rafted de bris, a search should be ini ti ated for the pres ence of sand-sized (>250 mm) ice-rafted de bris in Frasnian ma rine strata lo cated off shore from the main Gond wana land mass, and dated to the Late rhenana Cono dont Zone and/or to the linguiformis-Early triangularis cono dont zonal in ter val where the extinc tions and sharp drops in sea-sur face tem per a ture oc curred (Joachimski and Buggisch, 2002).

show abstract

“…In the ocean, coral stromatoporoid reefs reached their largest extent during the Phanerozoic in the Middle Devonian (Copper and Scotese, 2003) and fish evolved into rich diversity (Dahl et al, 2010). Finally, in the Late Devonian, the first tetrapods moved from ocean to land (Clack, 2007;Brezinski et al, 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the Late Devonian, proxy studies (van Geldern et al, 2006;Joachimski et al, 2009) indicate rising temperatures again which are still challenging to reconcile with the decreasing CO 2 concentrations. During the late Famennian, Earth's climate cooled 30 again (Brezinski et al, 2009;Joachimski et al, 2009), with some studies even indicating glaciations (Caputo, 1985;Caputo et al, 2008;Brezinski et al, 2008Brezinski et al, , 2009. Whether this is accompanied by a sea-level transgression linked to the development of ocean anoxic conditions (Johnson et al, 1985;Bond and Wignall, 2008) or a sea-level drop (Sandberg et al, 2002;Haq Age [Ma] 18 O values from conodont apatite from Joachimski et al (2009), but using a different NBS120c standard for calibration (Lécuyer et al, 2003).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

On the sensitivity of the Devonian climate to continental configuration, vegetation cover and insolation

Brugger

Hofmann

Petri

et al. 2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. During the Devonian period (419 to 359 million years ago), life on Earth witnessed decisive evolutionary breakthroughs, most prominently the colonisation of land by vascular plants and vertebrates. At the same time, it is also a period of major marine extinction events coinciding with marked changes in climate. There is limited knowledge about the causes of these changes and their interactions. It is therefore instructive to explore systematically how the Devonian climate system responds to changes in critical boundary conditions. Here we use coupled climate-model simulations to investigate separately 5 the influence of changes in orbital parameters, continental configuration and vegetation cover on the Devonian climate. Variations of Earth's orbital parameters affect the Devonian climate system, with the warmest climate states at high obliquity and high eccentricity, but the amplitude of global temperature differences is smaller than suggested by an earlier study based on an uncoupled atmosphere model. The prevailing mode of climate variability on decadal to centennial timescales relates to surface air temperature fluctuations in high northern latitudes which are mediated by coupled oscillations involving sea-ice cover, 10 ocean convection and a regional overturning circulation in the Arctic. Furthermore, we find only a small biogeophysical effect of changes in vegetation cover on global climate during the Devonian, and the impact of changes in continental configuration is small as well. Assuming decreasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations throughout the Devonian, we then set up model runs representing the Early, Middle and Late Devonian. Comparing the simulations for these timeslices, the temperature evolution is dominated by the strong decrease in atmospheric carbon dioxide. In particular, the albedo change due to the in-15 crease in land vegetation alone cannot explain the temperature rise found in Late Devonian proxy data which remains difficult to reconcile with reconstructed falling carbon-dioxide levels. Simulated temperatures are significantly lower than estimates based on oxygen-isotope ratios, suggesting a lower δ 18O ratio of Devonian seawater.Copyright statement.

show abstract

Evidence for long-term climate change in Upper Devonian strata of the central Appalachians

Cited by 35 publications

References 31 publications

Sequence stratigraphic hierarchy of the Upper Devonian Foreknobs Formation, central Appalachian Basin, USA: Evidence for transitional greenhouse to icehouse conditions

Sequence stratigraphic hierarchy of the Upper Devonian Foreknobs Formation, central Appalachian Basin, USA: Evidence for transitional greenhouse to icehouse conditions

The Late Devonian (Frasnian/Famenian) mass extinction: a proposed test of the glaciation hypothesis

On the sensitivity of the Devonian climate to continental configuration, vegetation cover and insolation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About