Showing papers by "Christopher R. Scotese published in 1992"
TL;DR: In the early Cambrian, there was a northward migration of Laurentia towards the Equator as its separation from Baltica and Siberia increased, and a southward movement of Gondwana as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Climatically-related sedimentary facies and faunal distributions have been combined with palaeomagnetic data to make provisional reconstructions of the early Cambrian world. Laurentia, Baltica and Siberia appear to have formed a continental group which rifted apart from each other prior to 600 Ma. The consolidation of much of Gondwana probably occurred (in the Pan-African orogeny) well before the Cambrian, though the assembly of several east Asian terranes is still speculative. The archaeocyathan reefs of Siberia, southern Europe and Morocco, with their bigotinid trilobite fauna, suggest that these areas were adjacent to each other and at low latitudes. Avalonia had close faunal links with western Gondwana, but lacked bigotinids and archaeocyathans and may have been situated off west Africa and Florida. During the early Cambrian, there was a northward migration of Laurentia towards the Equator as its separation from Baltica and Siberia increased, and a southward movement of Gondwana.
284 citations
01 Jan 1992
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented a set of 6 intervals during the Carboniferous period of the Earth's history, and used the Parametric Climate Model to predict the distribution of high and low pressure cells, prevailing wind directions, pole-to-equator temperature gradient, relative wetness/dryness, as well as zones of coastal upwelling.
Abstract: The Carboniferous was an important transitional period in earth history. The Paleozoic oceans separating the continents of Gondwana, Laurentia, Baltica, Kazakhstan, and Siberia had closed by the late Carboniferous forming the late Paleozoic supercontinent of Pangea. Plate motions which appear to have been rapid during the Early Carboniferous (6--10 cm/yr), slowed to a temperature gradient increased as the Earth's climate changed from hot-house to ice-house conditions. Sea level, which stood high during the Early Carboniferous, fell as a result of continental collision and mountain-building, and then began to rise and fall rhythmically as the South Polar ice-cap waxed and waned. These environmental changes intersected important evolutionary events, namely, the explosive colonization of the emergent land areas by plants and the rise of terrestrial vertebrates. In this paper the authors present paleogeographic reconstructions for 6 intervals during the Carboniferous. These maps illustrate the latitudinal position of the continents deduced from paleomagnetic data and the distribution of climatically restricted lithofacies (coal, bauxite, evaporite, calcrete, and tillite), the inferred location of active plate boundaries, and the changing configuration of mountains, land, shallow seas, and deep ocean basins. For each of these paleogeographic maps a climatic simulation was run using the Parametric Climate Model. more » These simulations predict the distribution of high and low pressure cells, prevailing wind directions, pole-to-equator temperature gradient, relative wetness/dryness, as well as zones of coastal upwelling. « less
2 citations