Reconsidering Carboniferous–Permian continental paleoenvironments in eastern equatorial Pangea: facies and sequence stratigraphy investigations in the Autun Basin (France)

Abstract

This work is part of the PhD thesis of MM and was funded by the BRGM and the Région Bretagne. The authors thank C. Hue, M. Buisson, T. Boucher, M. Boussaid and A. Saloume for participating in the core logging and Rock-Eval analyses, D. Chabard (director of the Natural History Museum of Autun) for access to the cores, Prof.

U–Pb age constraints on the Carboniferous–Permian transition in continental basins of eastern equatorial Pangaea (France): implications for the depositional history and correlations across the late Variscan Belt

“…The structural and palaeoenvironmental settings of C-P basins of the northern Massif Central (France, Fig. 1b) have been re-evaluated and documented in a number of recent studies (Beccaletto et al 2015;Ducassou et al 2019;Garel et al 2017;Mercuzot et al 2021aMercuzot et al , 2021bMercuzot et al , 2022Luccisano et al, 2022).…”

“…Paris, Aquitanian and SE basins), where they can reach several hundred of km 2 (Beccaletto et al 2015). Recently, Mercuzot et al (2021aMercuzot et al ( , 2022 suggested that the original extent of the present-day basins was significantly larger, raising the idea that (i) these basins could have been connected together at the time of their infilling, and (ii) that the subsurface basins represent the lateral extension of the exposed basinal strata (Beccaletto et al 2015). Consequently, the present disparate exposures may represent preserved depocenters of the larger basins.…”

“…1) are mostly filled with fine-to coarse-grained siliciclastic sediments, which have been attributed to four main depositional environments: fluvial, palustrine, deltaic and lacustrine (e.g. Paquette 1980;Marteau 1983;Mathis and Brulhet 1990;Donsimoni 1990;Ducassou et al 2019;Mercuzot et al 2021aMercuzot et al , 2021bMercuzot et al , 2022. Recent chemostratigraphic analyses of the Autun Basin have revealed episodic wet intervals of short duration (about 10 5 yr, Garel et al 2017;Mercuzot et al 2021b), hence difficult to correlate across the neighbouring basins without any precise chronostratigraphic scheme.…”

“…Previous studies suggested that the presently exposed sedimentary successions correspond to partially preserved depocenters of ancient, more extensive sedimentary domains. This hypothesis is based on subsurface and sedimentological evidence, such as present-day erosional borders, palaeogeography, and significant post-early Permian erosion (Beccaletto et al 2015;Mercuzot et al 2021aMercuzot et al , 2022. Accordingly, possible interconnections between western Europe basins during the late Carboniferous and the early Permian periods have been proposed, especially in reference to palaeobiogeography of elasmobranchs (freshwater sharks, and actinopterygians), including specimens from the Buxières Formation of the Aumance Basin (Poplin 1999;Schneider and Zajíc 1994;Schneider et al 2000).…”

Systematics, ontogeny and palaeobiogeography of the genus Orthacanthus (Diplodoselachidae, Xenacanthiformes) from the lower Permian of France

“…A recent sedimentological study has postulated that this locality represents a marginal lacustrine environment (Mercuzot 2020; Mercuzot et al . 2022).…”