THE PENNSYLVANIAN The Age of Coal Swamps eginning of Absaroka Sequence Regression of Kaskaskia Erosion took place Large regional unconformity
Dec 19, 2015
THE PENNSYLVANIANThe Age of Coal Swamps
Beginning of Absaroka Sequence
Regression of Kaskaskia
Erosion took place
Large regional unconformity
THE PENNSYLVANIANThe Age of Coal Swamps
Beginning of Absaroka Sequence
Seas of Absaroka encroach in in Middle Penns.
Deposits to east are thicker
Terrestrial ss, sh, coal beds
THE PENNSYLVANIANThe Age of Coal Swamps
Pennsylvanian Cyclothems
Transgressive-regressive events
Alternation between marine and nonmarine sediments
Represents a change in depositional environment caused by a single advance and retreat of sea
THE PENNSYLVANIANThe Age of Coal Swamps
Pennsylvanian Cyclothems
Correlated over large areas
50 cyclothems recorded in Missouri and Kansas
All about 750 m in thickness, 1000’s of kilometers2
Eustatic sea level change caused by advance and retreat of continental glaciers
THE PENNSYLVANIANThe Age of Coal Swamps
Southwest Portion of Craton
Ancestral Rockies
Fountain Formation – Flatirons, Boulder, CO
THE PENNSYLVANIANThe Age of Coal Swamps
Southwest Portion of Craton
Ancestral Rockies
ParadoxValleyCO-UT
THE PENNSYLVANIANThe Age of Coal Swamps
Southwest Portion of Craton
Ouachita Mountains
Mississippi Embayment Southern Appalachians
THE PENNSYLVANIANThe Age of Coal Swamps
Life in the Pennsylvanian
Calamites, LLepidodendron, MSigillaria, A
Reconstructions of Lepidodendron (far left, Late Carboniferous, ~50 m tall), Sigillaria (left, Late Carboniferous, ~40 m,), Valmeyerodendron (middle top, Early Carboniferous, 0.6 m), Protolepidodendron (top
right, Middle Devonian, 0.2 m), Chaloneria (bottom middle, Late Carboniferous, 2 m), Pleuromeia (bottom right, Triassic, 2 m) and
Isoetes (bottom far right, extant, 30 cm).
THE PENNSYLVANIANThe Age of Coal Swamps
Life in the PennsylvanianLagerstattenMazon Creek IL
Fern
Lepidodendron
THE PENNSYLVANIANThe Age of Coal Swamps
Life in the PennsylvanianLagerstattenJoggins, NS first reptiles
THE PENNSYLVANIANThe Age of Coal Swamps
Life in the PennsylvanianLagerstattenJoggins, NS First terrestrial gastropods
THE PERMIANThe Age of Pangaea
Named for Permia, an ancient kingdom between theUrals and the Volga River
Named by Murchison in 1841
THE TRIASSICThe Break-up of Pangaea
Three-fold division of rocks in Germany
Named by Frederich von Alberti in 1834