TY - JOUR
T1 - Dust and loess as archives and agents of climate and climate change in the late Paleozoic Earth system
AU - Soreghan, Gerilyn S.
AU - Heavens, Nicholas G.
AU - Pfeifer, Lily S.
AU - Soreghan, Michael J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s).
PY - 2023/6/14
Y1 - 2023/6/14
N2 - Palaeo-loess and silty aeolian-marine strata are well recognized across the Carboniferous–Permian of equatorial Pangaea. Aeolian-transported dust and loess appear in the Late Devonian in the west, are common by the Late Carboniferous, and predominate across equatorial Pangaea by the Permian. The thickest loess deposits in Earth history – in excess of 1000 m – date from this time, and archive unusually dusty equatorial conditions, especially compared to the dearth of equatorial dust in the Cenozoic. Loess archives a confluence of silt generation, aeolian emission and transport, and ultimate accumulation in dust traps that included ephem-erally wet surfaces and epeiric seas. Orogenic belts sourced the silt, and mountain glaciation may have exacer-bated voluminous silt production, but remains controversial. In western Pangaea, large rivers transported silt westward, and floodplain deflation supplied silt for loess and dust. Expansion of dust deposition in Late Pennsylvanian time records aridification that progressed across Pangaea, from west to east. Contemporaneous vol-canism may have created acidic atmospheric conditions to enhance nutrient reactivity of dusts, affecting Earth’s carbon cycle. The late Paleozoic was Earth’s largest and most long-lived dust bowl, and this dust represents both an archive and agent of climate and climate change.
AB - Palaeo-loess and silty aeolian-marine strata are well recognized across the Carboniferous–Permian of equatorial Pangaea. Aeolian-transported dust and loess appear in the Late Devonian in the west, are common by the Late Carboniferous, and predominate across equatorial Pangaea by the Permian. The thickest loess deposits in Earth history – in excess of 1000 m – date from this time, and archive unusually dusty equatorial conditions, especially compared to the dearth of equatorial dust in the Cenozoic. Loess archives a confluence of silt generation, aeolian emission and transport, and ultimate accumulation in dust traps that included ephem-erally wet surfaces and epeiric seas. Orogenic belts sourced the silt, and mountain glaciation may have exacer-bated voluminous silt production, but remains controversial. In western Pangaea, large rivers transported silt westward, and floodplain deflation supplied silt for loess and dust. Expansion of dust deposition in Late Pennsylvanian time records aridification that progressed across Pangaea, from west to east. Contemporaneous vol-canism may have created acidic atmospheric conditions to enhance nutrient reactivity of dusts, affecting Earth’s carbon cycle. The late Paleozoic was Earth’s largest and most long-lived dust bowl, and this dust represents both an archive and agent of climate and climate change.
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U2 - 10.1144/SP535-2022-208
DO - 10.1144/SP535-2022-208
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85156227554
SN - 0305-8719
VL - 535
SP - 195
EP - 223
JO - Geological Society Special Publication
JF - Geological Society Special Publication
IS - 1
ER -