Event Title
Causes of Regional Glaciation in an Otherwise Globally Warm Environment: Eastern Australia during the Permian
Location
Parker-Reed, SSWAC
Start Date
30-4-2015 2:00 PM
End Date
30-4-2015 3:55 PM
Project Type
Poster
Description
According to the weather proxies applied to sedimentary deposits and atmospheric condition of the global regions affected by the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, Australia is a region that stayed colder than the rest of the globe throughout the Permian. There are several thoughts as to why this happened. One thought has to do with the late Tectonic pulse and transformation of the the eastern marine shelf into a foreland basin sequestering cold water in a somewhat trapped environment leading to cold weather indicators in depositional periods which should have been much warmer. Other thoughts include the potential of regional ice sheets which stayed on Australian longer than in any other place, but the most convincing is the occurrence of cold deep water upwelling which occurred in the palaeo tropics during the Permian. This upwelling is thought to have allowed cold water to flow back into the basins on land and caused ice accumulation upstream which is consistent with the inland, Australian, deltaic depositional pattern throughout the Permian. Although the theory of an anomalously cold Australia during the Permian can be supported through tectonic and circulatory reasoning, the most effective method of describing the occurrence of cold temperatures in Australia is due to cold upwelling of the palaeo-hydrosphere.
Faculty Sponsor
Herb Wilson
Sponsoring Department
Colby College. Geology Dept.
CLAS Field of Study
Natural Sciences
Event Website
http://www.colby.edu/clas
ID
1454
Causes of Regional Glaciation in an Otherwise Globally Warm Environment: Eastern Australia during the Permian
Parker-Reed, SSWAC
According to the weather proxies applied to sedimentary deposits and atmospheric condition of the global regions affected by the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, Australia is a region that stayed colder than the rest of the globe throughout the Permian. There are several thoughts as to why this happened. One thought has to do with the late Tectonic pulse and transformation of the the eastern marine shelf into a foreland basin sequestering cold water in a somewhat trapped environment leading to cold weather indicators in depositional periods which should have been much warmer. Other thoughts include the potential of regional ice sheets which stayed on Australian longer than in any other place, but the most convincing is the occurrence of cold deep water upwelling which occurred in the palaeo tropics during the Permian. This upwelling is thought to have allowed cold water to flow back into the basins on land and caused ice accumulation upstream which is consistent with the inland, Australian, deltaic depositional pattern throughout the Permian. Although the theory of an anomalously cold Australia during the Permian can be supported through tectonic and circulatory reasoning, the most effective method of describing the occurrence of cold temperatures in Australia is due to cold upwelling of the palaeo-hydrosphere.
https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/163