Continental Upper Carboniferous red beds in the Variscan intermontane Saale Basin, central Germany: orbital forcing detected by wavelet analysis

Abstract

Stratigraphical correlation within continental red beds is hampered by uniformity of sediments and the lack of fossils, such that classical lithostratigraphical and biostratigraphical methods often fail. For a drilled section of Upper Carboniferous non-marine sediments of the Variscan intermontane Saale Basin, almost 800 m in thickness, an alternative approach is proposed. Wavelet-based time-series analysis is used to identify the internal organization of the cyclicity, and to distinguish cycles of different magnitude and origin as being autocyclically, tectonically or climatically controlled. Based on this distinction, basin-wide correlations of fluvial red beds are possible using a combination of high-resolution stratigraphy, biostratigraphy and classical lithostratigraphy. The analyses of well Querfurt 1/64 suggest the presence of short and long eccentricity cycles, and a duration of 5-7 Ma if the grey facies at the base of the section is to be correlated with the Grillenberg Subformation sediments. This subformation is of Stephanian A or Barruelian age, respectively, such that the well Querfurt 1/64 exposes a nearly complete section of the Mansfeld Subgroup (complete Stephanian stage).

Late Palaeozoic red beds elucidate fluvial architectures preserving large woody debris in the seasonal tropics of central Pangaea

“…Under such depositional conditions, trunks were quickly buried and frequent flooding increased LWD supply, as inferred from recent fluvial systems (Gurnell et al ., ). In contrast, sediments from the Late Pennsylvanian dry interval (for example, the Stephanian B Rothenburg Formation of the Saale Basin, Gebhardt & Hiete, ; Fig. ) reveal a much more ephemeral and sediment‐laden fluvial deposition.…”

“…Although located at 10° northern latitude (Fig. B), such a climate was favoured by the orientation of the basin perpendicular to prevailing wind directions (Gebhardt & Hiete, ).…”

“…Summarized and modified after Schriel & Fulda (,b), Roscher & Schneider (), Schneider et al . (), Gebhardt & Hiete (), Kroner & Romer () and Schneider et al . ().…”

Extracting oscillating components from nonstationary time series: A wavelet-induced method

“…Wavelets are now well-established tools for signal analysis; their range of applications includes DNA analysis [12], acoustics [13], geology [14], climatology [15][16][17], and physiology [18,19], to name just a few. Wavelet transforms are provided with a rather strong mathematical theoretical background and with an inverse transform, which is the backbone of reconstruction procedures (see, e.g., Refs.…”

“…However, in the classic continuous wavelet transform (CWT) analysis, all (or, in practice, many) wavelet coefficients are needed to accurately rebuild the original signal, and the area of the TF plane needed for the reconstruction has to be manually selected (as in, e.g., Refs. [5,14]). Approaches such as in Ref.…”