A paleoclimatic simulation of the Late Permian greenhouse world and its consequences
- Chevron Oil Field Research Co., La Habra, CA (United States)
Sea-floor spreading assembled all the major cratonic blocks into a single supercontinent once in the Phanerozoic Eon. This unique Late Permian crustal tectonic event produced Pangaea and an enormous oceanic basin volume that dropped sea level to a global lowstand unrivaled in the Phanerozoic. Two paleoclimatic simulations using a numerical three-dimensional general circulation model tested changes in the greenhouse effect. The authors conclude that for a simulation to fit the Late Permian geologic record, the paleoatmosphere must contain an enhanced greenhouse gas effect. A third simulation tested changes of paleogeography in southern Pangaea (Gondwana) that did not appreciably alter the harsh continental paleoclimate. The simulated paleoclimatic changes provide extraordinarily warm ocean and atmosphere, and a significant reduction in continental rainfall and runoff. These conditions inevitably lead to more aridity and less vegetation on land, gradually reduce the delivery of vital nutrients from continental sources to marine margins, systematically liberate CO{sub 2} dissolved in ocean water, and incrementally increase stress on marine and terrestrial biotas. These consequences severely disrupted rates of oxygen and carbon cycling. Their quantitative paleoclimatic simulation is consistent with distributions of red beds, evaporites, coals, marine shelf areas, seawater isotope trends, and paleontologic originations and extinctions. Thus, the Pangaean plate assembly probably triggered an inexorable sequence of geophysical, geochemical, and biological events that forced an elevated greenhouse effect in the Late Permian, nearly annihilating the Phanerozoic biota.
- OSTI ID:
- 7259863
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-910403-; CODEN: AABUD
- Journal Information:
- AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States), Vol. 75:3; Conference: Annual meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), Dallas, TX (United States), 7-10 Apr 1991; ISSN 0149-1423
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
A true polar wander model for Neoproterozoic plate motions
Late Early Silurian (Wenlockian) paleoclimate using a general circulation model
Related Subjects
EARTH PLANET
CLIMATE MODELS
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
CARBON CYCLE
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GLOBAL ASPECTS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
OCEANIC CIRCULATION
PERMIAN PERIOD
PLATE TECTONICS
SEA LEVEL
SEA-FLOOR SPREADING
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
WATER CURRENTS
CLIMATIC CHANGE
CURRENTS
GEOLOGIC AGES
LEVELS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PALEONTOLOGY
PALEOZOIC ERA
PLANETS
TECTONICS
580000* - Geosciences