Sea level and climatic changes related to late Paleozoic cycles

Wanless, Harold R.; Shepard, Francis P.

doi:10.1130/gsab-47-1177

Cited by 305 publications

(127 citation statements)

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“…3, 4). Described as cyclothems for the repeated cyclic pattern of different lithologies, representing different kinds of original depositional environments (for historical summaries see Langenheim and Nelson 1992;Archer 2009), these signature deposits were first recognized in the Illinois Basin (Udden 1912), described in detail by Wanless and Weller (1932) and attributed to polar glaciation by Wanless and Shepard (1936). A cyclothem is a record of covarying changes in sea level, climate, and sedimentation patterns (Cecil et al 1985(Cecil et al , 2003bTandon and Gibling 1994;Heckel 1990Heckel , 2008Cecil and Dulong 2003), representing cycles of approximately Milankovich durations of 100,000 and 400,000 yr (Heckel 1986;Pointon et al 2012).…”

Section: Tropical Cyclic Sedimentation: Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

DiMichele¹

2014

International Journal of Plant Sciences

161

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Premise of research. The Late Paleozoic Ice Age was the last extensive pre-Pleistocene ice age. It includes many climate changes of different intensities, permitting examination of many and varied biotic responses. The tropical Pennsylvanian Subperiod, usually visualized as one vast wetland coal forest, in fact also was dominated, periodically, by seasonally dry vegetation that, in turn, covered most of the central and western Pangean supercontinent. Equatorial wetland and dryland biomes oscillated during single glacial-interglacial cycles. This recognition changes understanding of the Coal Age tropics; examination of their spatiotemporal patterns indicates that these vegetation types responded differently to global environmental disturbances and long-term trends and points to potentially different underlying controls on evolutionary histories of their component lineages.Methodology. This study is based on the published literature and on examination of geological exposures and fossil floras, mainly from North America but also from other parts of the world.Pivotal results. Wetlands and seasonally dry habitats were equally part of the Coal Age Pangean tropics. They dominated these landscapes at different times, under different climatic regimes. Wetland vegetation was likely forced into refugia during seasonally dry (subhumid to semiarid) parts of glacial-interglacial cycles; it reemerged/reassembled during wet (humid to perhumid) periods. Seasonally dry vegetation resided permanently in areas of western and central Pangea and in microhabitats within the Central Pangean Mountains. Both floras had lower biodiversity than modern floras in similar habitats. The wetland flora species pool was more phylogenetically disparate than any modern vegetation. In contrast, seasonally dry floras were dominated by seed plants. These biomes responded differently to acute environmental changes and chronic long-term aridification.Conclusions. From ecological or evolutionary perspectives, the present-day world is but one possibility. Lower-diversity worlds such as the late Paleozoic, with a rich spectrum of environmental variations, offer insights into relationships between organisms and environments that expand understanding of these phenomena and enlarge our sense of what is possible or probable as we look to the future.

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Section: Tropical Cyclic Sedimentation: Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

DiMichele¹

2014

International Journal of Plant Sciences

161

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“…The Late Carboniferous is characterized by icehouse conditions (Caputo & Crowell, 1985;Maynard & Leeder, 1992). As a consequence, it is thought that eustatic sea-level changes triggered by the waxing and waning of the Gondwanan icesheet occurred during this interval (Wanless & Shepard, 1936). The magnitude of the sea-level fluctuations is however difficult to constrain (45 -190 m, Crowley & Baum, 1991;>42 m, Maynard & Leeder, 1992;25 -155 m, Süss, 1996;10 -95 m, Wright & Vanstone, 2001).…”

Section: Paleoclimate and Sea Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

The alluvial architecture of the Coevorden Field (Upper Carboniferous), the Netherlands

Kombrink

Bridge

Stouthamer

2007

Netherlands Journal of Geosciences

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A detailed reconstruction of the alluvial architecture of the Coevorden gas Field (Tubbergen Formation, Upper Carboniferous), which is located in the northeastern part of the Netherlands, is presented. This reconstruction is based on well logs, cross-sections and paleogeographic maps. Sedimentological analysis of a 93 m long core allowed to refine the interpretation of the depositional environment. Accurate width determinations are necessary to correctly correlate fluvial sandbodies and reconstruct alluvial architecture. Without using sedimentological information, sandbody width is likely to be overestimated. A method developed by Bridge and Tye (2000) was used to calculate the width of one sandstone body from cross-set thicknesses. On the basis of this calculation and the paleogeographic reconstructions, it may be stated that on average the width of the channel belts we studied in the Coevorden field does not exceed 4 km. Moreover, our paleogeographic reconstructions, which point to a northwestern direction of paleoflow, are in accordance with earlier observations from the study area. The Tubbergen Formation and time-equivalent sediments in Germany are reviewed briefly to put the Coevorden Field in a regional context. The thickness of the Tubbergen Formation is ∼450 m in our study area. In the adjacent German area, time-equivalent sedimentary sequences reach higher thicknesses. This may be attributed to tectonic movements along the Gronau Fault zone and the coming into existence of the Ems Low, of which the Coevorden Field is the westernmost part.

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“…The cool climate mode that prevailed throughout much of the Pennsylvanian was similar to that in the Pleistocene and Holocene, and was dominated by glacial-interglacial cycles and their effects on sea level (Wanless and Shepard, 1936), sedimentary dynamics (Cecil and Dulong, 2003;Cecil et al, 2003a), and biotic patterns Falcon-Lang and DiMichele, 2010). However, in representing a much longer time interval of nearly 20 million years, the Pennsylvanian "coal age" encompassed far greater ranges of variability in climate state and environmental fluctuation than has the Quaternary age (Bishop et al, 2010;Cecil, 1990;Eros et al, 2012;Fielding et al, 2008a,b;Montañez and Poulsen, 2013), including periods of nearly ice-free poles as well as intervals of intense glaciation.…”

Section: Pennsylvanian Coal and Sequence Stratigraphymentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Climatic fluctuations, sea-level fluctuations, changes in siliciclastic sediment flux, and the formation of peat and limestone, were not independent variables (Cecil and Dulong, 2003). Rather, they all reflect ties to one another and to high-latitude ice dynamics, which itself may have been dependent on orbital forcing factors and atmospheric CO 2 levels (e.g., Birgenheier et al, 2010;Cecil and Dulong, 2003;Heckel, 2008;Horton and Poulsen, 2009;Montañez and Poulsen, 2013;Peyser and Poulsen, 2008;Poulsen et al, 2007;Rosenau et al, 2013;Royer et al, 2004;Rygel et al, 2008;Wanless and Shepard, 1936), or even unknown astronomic factors. 3 Certain aspects of tectonics also may have strong linkages to prevailing climate, which has been shown to play an important role in erosion rates, rates of uplift, and rates of basinal subsidence (e.g., Harris and Mix, 2002;Hay, 1996;Montgomery et al, 2001;Whipple, 2009).…”

Section: Pennsylvanian Coal and Sequence Stratigraphymentioning

confidence: 99%