Revealing the hidden Milankovitch record from Pennsylvanian cyclothem successions and implications regarding late Paleozoic chronology and terrestrial-carbon (coal) storage Article Swipe

PDF

Related Concepts

Cyclothems Milankovitch cycles Pennsylvanian Geology Paleontology Facies Subaerial Paleozoic Cyclostratigraphy Sedimentary depositional environment Structural basin Glacial period

F.J.G. van den Belt , Thomas B. van Hoof , H. Pagnier ·

YOU? · · 2015 · Open Access · · DOI: https://doi.org/10.1130/ges01177.1 · OA: W2139076344

The widely held view that Pennsylvanian cyclothems formed in response to Milankovitch-controlled, glacio-eustatic, sea-level oscillations lacks unambiguous quantitative support and is challenged by models that are based on climate-controlled precipitation-driven changes in depositional style. This study shows that cyclothem successions do in fact contain a clear record of Milankovitch-controlled oscillating sea level, but that it is prerequisite that besides cyclothem thickness, cyclothem composition is taken into account. A simple subdivision of cyclothems into subaqueous and subaerial facies is sufficient to reveal the signal, provided that sufficiently long and complete successions are studied.