Publication Date:
2021-03-23
Description:
The continental terrestrial record preserves an archive of how ancient sedimentary systems respond to and record changes in global climate. A database-driven quantitative assessment reveals differences in the preserved sedimentary architectures of siliciclastic eolian systems with broad geographic and stratigraphic distribution that developed under icehouse versus greenhouse climatic conditions. Over 5600 geological entities, including architectural elements, facies, sediment textures, and bounding surfaces, have been analyzed from 34 eolian systems of Paleoproterozoic to Cenozoic ages. Statistical analyses have been performed on the abundance, composition, preserved thickness, and arrangement of different eolian lithofacies, architectural elements, and bounding surfaces. Results demonstrate that preserved sedimentary architectures of icehouse and greenhouse systems differ markedly. Eolian dune, sand sheet, and interdune architectural elements that accumulated under icehouse conditions are significantly thinner relative to their greenhouse counterparts; this is observed across all basin settings, supercontinents, geological ages, and dune field physiographic settings. However, this difference between icehouse and greenhouse eolian systems is exclusively observed for paleolatitudes
Print ISSN:
0016-7606
Electronic ISSN:
1943-2674
Topics:
Geosciences
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