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Cyclic sedimentation and climatically caused sea-level changes in the Late Palaeozoic of Central Europe

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Abstract

Significant short-term fluctuations are characteristic of geological history since Precambrian times. Only the younger Quaternary climatic fluctuations are known in more detail as a result of a high grade time resolution. Climatic change can also be postulated with respect to older, cold periods during which polar inland ice sheets developed. From a discussion of endogene and exogene interpretations it is shown that global climatic changes, and the sea-level changes induced by them, as well as changes in the position and extent of climatic zones throughout the world provide a control mechanism for sedimentation which is consistent with cyclic sedimentation in Late Palaeozoic times, and also if the basin subsides non-cyclically. The model allows an explanation of the development of the Permo-Carboniferous sedimentary cycles without numerous short-term vertical oscillations of the earth's crust. In reality, exogene and endogene controls on sedimentation act together in great variety of combinations.

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  1. Auf dem Kiewitt 12/79, D-14471, Potsdam, Germany

    A. O. Ludwig

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Ludwig, A.O. Cyclic sedimentation and climatically caused sea-level changes in the Late Palaeozoic of Central Europe. Geol Rundsch 83, 799–810 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00251077

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