The late Paleozoic Ice Age along the southwestern margin of Gondwana: Facies models, age constraints, correlation and sequence stratigraphic framework

López-Gamundí, Oscar R.; Limarino, Carlos Óscar; Isbell, John L.; Pauls, Kathryn N.; Césari, Silvia N.; Alonso-Muruaga, Pablo J.

doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2020.103056

Cited by 37 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 170 publications

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“…Documentation of timecorrelative paleo-loess deposits more distally, or loess-derived eolian-marine strata with characteristics consistent with glacial grinding could be preserved up to 100 s to >1000 km from ice margins. Ultimately, building the case for possible upland glaciation requires integration of multiple lines of evidence, none of which might be uniquely diagnostic when considered individually-analogous to building the case for continental glaciation (e.g., see review by Isbell et al, 2021). Although we focus here on upland systems owing to the particularly poor preservation of ice-contact attributes, these same approaches are applicable to detecting glaciation for continental glaciation.…”

Section: 44mentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting upland glaciation in Earth’s pre-Pleistocene record

et al. 2022

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Earth has sustained continental glaciation several times in its past. Because continental glaciers ground to low elevations, sedimentary records of ice contact can be preserved from regions that were below base level, or subject to subsidence. In such regions, glaciated pavements, ice-contact deposits such as glacial till with striated clasts, and glaciolacustrine or glaciomarine strata with dropstones reveal clear signs of former glaciation. But assessing upland (mountain) glaciation poses particular challenges because elevated regions typically erode, and thus have extraordinarily poor preservation potential. Here we propose approaches for detecting the former presence of glaciation in the absence or near-absence of ice-contact indicators; we apply this specifically to the problem of detecting upland glaciation, and consider the implications for Earth’s climate system. Where even piedmont regions are eroded, pro- and periglacial phenomena will constitute the primary record of upland glaciation. Striations on large (pebble and larger) clasts survive only a few km of fluvial transport, but microtextures developed on quartz sand survive longer distances of transport, and record high-stress fractures consistent with glaciation. Proglacial fluvial systems can be difficult to distinguish from non-glacial systems, but a preponderance of facies signaling abundant water and sediment, such as hyperconcentrated flood flows, non-cohesive fine-grained debris flows, and/or large-scale and coarse-grained cross-stratification are consistent with proglacial conditions, especially in combination with evidence for cold temperatures, such as rip-up clasts composed of noncohesive sediment, indicating frozen conditions, and/or evidence for a predominance of physical over chemical weathering. Other indicators of freezing (periglacial) conditions include frozen-ground phenomena such as fossil ice wedges and ice crystals. Voluminous loess deposits and eolian-marine silt/mudstone characterized by silt modes, a significant proportion of primary silicate minerals, and a provenance from non-silt precursors can indicate the operation of glacial grinding, even though such deposits may be far removed from the site(s) of glaciation. Ultimately, in the absence of unambiguous ice-contact indicators, inferences of glaciation must be grounded on an array of observations that together record abundant meltwater, temperatures capable of sustaining glaciation, and glacial weathering (e.g., glacial grinding). If such arguments are viable, they can bolster the accuracy of past climate models, and guide climate modelers in assessing the types of forcings that could enable glaciation at elevation, as well as the extent to which (extensive) upland glaciation might have influenced global climate.

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Section: 44mentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting upland glaciation in Earth’s pre-Pleistocene record

et al. 2022

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“…In Western Gondwana, glacial stages or advances and retreats were frequent in the Carboniferous (Ezpeleta et al 2020, Le Heron et al 2021, López Gamundí et al 2021.…”

Section: A C C E P T E D Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is an arthropodproduced ichnofossil only documented in the early postglacial deposits of the Paganzo Basin, in the Guandacol Formation and equivalent units (e.g.,Pazos 2002a, b;Buatois and Mángano 2003). The glacial records of the Hoyada Verde, Guandacol and the El Imperial formations have all been recently assigned to glacial stage IV (López-Gamundí et al 2021). The biostratigraphic correlation scheme using invertebrate biozones is rather controversial.…”

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confidence: 99%

All post-Cambrian ichnospecies of Psammichnites Torell, 1870 belong to Olivellites Fenton and Fenton, 1937 b

Pazos

Gutiérrez

2022

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The ichnogenus Psammichnites herein restricted to Psammichnites gigas is based on comparison of morphology, feeding behaviour, contrast between the burrows and the host rock and possible producers. The record of siphonal activity as a “snorkel device” is discussed. The diagnosis of the ichnogenus Olivellites now is amended and includes all the records of Psammichnites in the post-Cambrian. Olivellites is now documented in successions other than the classical tidal flat deposits facies of the Carboniferous of the USA. We propose that the producer of Olivellites was an animal with capacity for displacement to different shallow infaunal levels for different feeding strategies. An interpretation of detritus feeding behavior with sediment displacement (pasichnia) is favoured here. The producer of Olivellites was likely to have been a bivalved mollusc that evolved after the Late Ordovician mass extinction. It was euryhaline and lived in a broad bathymetric range, and is recorded in temperate to glacially related successions. The material of Olivellites implexus from western Argentina is the youngest record of the ichnogegenus from Western Gondwana.

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“…palaeovalleys and palaeofjords) carved in bedrock and filled with thick glacial and postglacial successions (e.g. Martin, 1981a; Visser & Kingsley, 1982; Visser, 1983, 1986, 1996; Cole, 1991; Holz, 1999; Kneller et al ., 2004; Marenssi et al ., 2005; Dykstra et al ., 2006; Henry et al ., 2010, 2012, 2014; Limarino et al ., 2010, 2014; Aquino et al ., 2014; Tedesco et al ., 2016; Alonso‐Muruaga et al ., 2018; Fallgatter & Paim, 2019; Dietrich et al ., 2021; López‐Gamundí et al ., 2021; Valdez et al ., 2021). Although some valleys show strong sedimentological evidence to have been carved and filled by glaciers, the glacial origin of some valleys and their fill has been debated (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gravitational resedimentation as a fundamental process in filling fjords: Lessons from outcrops from a late Palaeozoic fjord in Namibia

Menozzo da Rosa,

Isbell,

McNall

et al. 2023

Sedimentology

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The stratigraphic architecture of fjords is complicated due to the delicate interplay between ice dynamics, sediment supply, relative sea‐level fluctuations and slope failures. Glaciogenic sediment is prone to failure and to be carried downslope to the fjord floor through the entire spectrum of mass movements and subaqueous density flows, as the unstable paraglacial submarine landscape moves toward stability. Palaeofjords formed by Gondwanan glaciers during the late Palaeozoic Ice Age contain a compelling record of gravitational resedimentation in fjord depositional systems. This paper showcases the geomorphology and depositional history of a glacial cycle in the Orutanda fjord in north‐western Namibia as an example of an overdeepened fjord basin fill dominated by products of subaqueous gravitational processes. During glaciation, the Orutanda glacier carved a 20 km long by 3.7 km wide glacial trough that embodies an overdeepened basin. Ice thickness during terminal glacial occupation of the fjord is estimated to had been up to 200 m based on the fjord geomorphology. The progressive retreat of the tidewater glacier, concomitant with marine flooding, increased accommodation space in the overdeepened basin during deglaciation. During this stage, proglacial sedimentation through iceberg rafting and settling of turbid plumes was outpaced by intense paraglacial downslope resedimentation of glacially‐transported debris. Successive failures from the fjord walls and downslope resedimentation resulted in coalescing debrite–turbidite lobes on the fjord floor. Slide deposits, composed entirely of deformed debrites and turbidites, indicate these resedimented facies were prone to renewed mass wasting. As the Orutanda glacier melted, the fjord experienced the axial progradation of a fjord‐head delta registered only by turbidites and slide deposits derived from its collapse. The Orutanda fjord sheds light on the relevance of paraglacial mass wasting in overprinting glaciogenic deposits. This insight is key to understanding the role of glaciers versus non‐glacial processes in producing the glacial deep‐time record.

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The late Paleozoic Ice Age along the southwestern margin of Gondwana: Facies models, age constraints, correlation and sequence stratigraphic framework

Cited by 37 publications

References 170 publications

Detecting upland glaciation in Earth’s pre-Pleistocene record

Detecting upland glaciation in Earth’s pre-Pleistocene record

All post-Cambrian ichnospecies of Psammichnites Torell, 1870 belong to Olivellites Fenton and Fenton, 1937 b

Gravitational resedimentation as a fundamental process in filling fjords: Lessons from outcrops from a late Palaeozoic fjord in Namibia

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