Gondwana's movement over the South Pole during the Palaeozoic: evidence from lithological indicators of climate

Scotese, R. Christopher; Barrett, S. F.

doi:10.1144/gsl.mem.1990.012.01.06

Cited by 110 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…4e). The symmetric zonal patterns erased the differences between the two hemispheres and can be used to indicate the influence of climate change on the distribution of climate-sensitive lithologic deposits (Scotese & Barrett, 1990;Ziegler et al 2003).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The palaeolatitudinal distribution of climate-sensitive lithologic deposits is important for understanding past climates (Gordon, 1975;Evans, 2006;Boucot, Chen & Scotese, 2013), reconstructing palaeogeographies (Ronov, Khain & Seslavinsky, 1984;Ronov, Khain & Balukhovsky, 1989;Scotese 2001Scotese , 2004Golonka et al 2006;Blakey, 2008) and providing constraints for climate modelling (Boucot & Gray, 2001;Craggs, Valdes & Widdowson, 2011) and plate motion histories (Scotese & Barrett, 1990;Witzke, 1990). However, the past distribution of climate-sensitive lithologies remains poorly understood, especially in deep geological times.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A global †Author for correspondence: wenchao.cao@sydney.edu.au palaeomagnetic compilation of Earth's basin-scale evaporite records suggests that evaporite palaeolatitudes have varied to some degree over the past 2 billion years, with a relatively large difference between Cenozoic-Mesozoic times (a mean palaeolatitude of 23 ± 4°) and Devonian-Ediacaran times (a mean palaeolatitude of 14 ± 2°) (Evans, 2006). In addition, previous studies have rarely considered the effect of the uneven distribution of continental areas through time (Vilhena & Smith, 2013) and the implications of applying different global tectonic reconstruction models (Scotese & Barrett, 1990;Ziegler et al 2003) on latitudinal distribution of climate indicators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paleolatitudinal distribution of lithologic indicators of climate in a paleogeographic framework

Cao¹,

Williams²,

Flament³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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-Whether the latitudinal distribution of climate-sensitive lithologies is stable through greenhouse and icehouse regimes remains unclear. Previous studies suggest that the palaeolatitudinal distribution of palaeoclimate indicators, including coals, evaporites, reefs and carbonates, has remained broadly similar since the Permian period, leading to the conclusion that atmospheric and oceanic circulation control their distribution rather than the latitudinal temperature gradient. Here we revisit a global-scale compilation of lithologic indicators of climate, including coals, evaporites and glacial deposits, back to the Devonian period. We test the sensitivity of their latitudinal distributions to the uneven distribution of continental areas through time and to global tectonic models, correct the latitudinal distributions of lithologies for sampling-and continental area-bias, and use statistical methods to fit these distributions with probability density functions and estimate their high-density latitudinal ranges with 50 % and 95 % confidence intervals. The results suggest that the palaeolatitudinal distributions of lithologies have changed through deep geological time, notably a pronounced poleward shift in the distribution of coals at the beginning of the Permian. The distribution of evaporites indicates a clearly bimodal distribution over the past ∼400 Ma, except for Early Devonian, Early Carboniferous, the earliest Permian and Middle and Late Jurassic times. We discuss how the patterns indicated by these lithologies change through time in response to plate motion, orography, evolution and greenhouse/icehouse conditions. This study highlights that combining tectonic reconstructions with a comprehensive lithologic database and novel data analysis approaches provide insights into the nature and causes of shifting climatic zones through deep time.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paleolatitudinal distribution of lithologic indicators of climate in a paleogeographic framework

Cao¹,

Williams²,

Flament³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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show abstract

“…The Waterloo Farm estuary formed along the shoreline of the intracontinental Agulhas Sea, apparently within fifteen degrees of the south pole (Scotese & McKerrow 1990;Scotese & Barrett 1990;Mitchell et al 2012) (Fig. 1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scorpion Fragments from the Silurian of Powys, Wales

Dunlop¹,

Selden²

2013

Arachnology

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“…Gondwana drifted northward and rotated clockwise during Devonian times (Scotese and McKerrow, 1990, Scotese and Barret, 1990, Golonka, 2000, 2007b. At the same time, Laurussia was rotating clockwise (Torsvik et al, 1996) at a somewhat faster rate.…”

Section: Laurussia During Devonian Timesmentioning

confidence: 99%