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Stratigraphical successions: how plate tectonics and climate shape the geological record
Permian
250
Carboniferous
300
Devonian
350
400
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
450
500
geological period
550
important to remember the sequence of periods
not necessary to know the dates
Death of an ocean:
the Cambrian Silurian geological record of Britain and Ireland
Early Silurian
Middle Ordovician
Early Ordovician
Early Cambrian
southern parts of Britain and Ireland
part of Gondwana
part of Laurentia
Terranes
tectonostratigraphic terrane
regional scale
bounded by faults
own geological history that is distinct
from adjacent terranes
often form as island arcs, fragments of
crust + sediments are accreted to overriding plate margin
note trends (NE-SW) of (most)
boundaries
Laurentian terranes
Laurentia
intermediate
accreted
terranes
e.g. Midland Valley
Southern Uplands
Gondwanan terranes
Gondwana
Faunal Provincialism
low latitudes
high latitudes
physiographic terms
continental shelf
littoral zone
shelf break
continental slope
sublittoral zone
continental rise
abyssal plain
Faunal Provincialism
high latitudes
low latitudes
continental shelf
equator
continent
20S
60S
shallow marine
sessile infaunal
benthos
Trilobites
Graptolites
Phylum Hemichordata
planktonic
extant hemichordates
Rhabdopleura
graptoloid
hypothesised reconstruction of
zooids of graptoloid based on
extant relative Rhabdopleura
cyclopygid trilobite
Opipeuter
Ampyxina
benthos: note the dorso-ventral flattening
Laurentia
Calyptaulax
Baltica
Avalonia
Panderia
Ordovician graptolites
Isograptus
Ordovician graptolites
General observations
Complex patterns while Iapetus existed
(b) other distributions possible : e.g. west/east division in Late Ordovician trilobites (? ocean currents as control)
(c) some graptoloids cosmopolitan distribution: others divided into Atlantic and Pacific Provinces
freshwater
freshwater fish
benthic ostracods
benthic
marine
Sedimentology
Laurentian terranes
Laurentia
intermediate
accreted
terranes
accretionary wedge
deep-marine sediments
greywackes (muddy sandstones)
deposited as event beds from
turbidity currents
associated with black shales and cherts
(open oceanic sediments)
Gondwanan terranes
Gondwana
accretion and mountain building..
various subduction and orogenic events during closure of Iapetus
collectively the Caledonian orogeny
e.g. the Southern Upland terrane represents deep-marine sediments obducted in an
accretionary wedge during final closure of Iapaetus
the result..
amalgamation of Avalonia Laurentia and Baltica
creates a major continent: Euramerica, Laurussia or Old Red Sandstone Continent
transition from marine sediments to terrestrial sedimentation at low palaeolatitudes south of equator
red beds
desert environments
you are not expected to know every detail on each lithofacies map,
but you should be able to distinguish which time slice each
corresponds to
EARLY DEVONIAN
highlands shedding very coarse
detritus on slopes as alluvial fans
lake systems
terrestrial
marine
OXIDATION
4FeO + O2 2Fe2O3
(Fe 2 + Fe 3 + )
Channel base
MIDDLE DEVONIAN
terrestrial
marine
Orcadian Basin
LATE DEVONIAN
alluvial plains
and aeolian facies
alluvial plains
meandering rivers
evaporites locally
coastal plain
marine
EARLY CARBONIFEROUS
deep
MIDDLE CARBONIFEROUS
alluvial plains
Carboniferous limestone
fossiliferous carbonate muds
rugosan corals: solitary (1) and colonial (2)
LATE CARBONIFEROUS
extensive emergent (terrestrial)
surfaces in north
alluvial plains
Summary
Carboniferous
terrestrial
ORS continent
Devonian
Silurian
Laurentia
Ordovician
Laurentia
Cambrian
Iapetus Ocean
Avalonia
Gondwana
marine
Avalonia
Gondwana
major
orogenic
episodes