Untitled Document
Oxygen isotope values from Permian high latitudes:
clues for palaeolatitudinal sea-surface temperature gradients and Late
Palaeozoic deglaciation.
Korte, C.1, Jones, P.J.2, Brand, U.3, Mertmann, D.4 & Veizer,
J.1,5
1 Institut für Geologie, Mineralogie und Geophysik, Ruhr Universität 44801
Bochum, Germany
2 Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra,
ACT 0200, Australia
3 Department of Earth Sciences, Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario,
Canada L2S 3A1
4 Institut für Geowissenschaften, FU Berlin, Malteserstrasse 74-100, 12249
Berlin, Germany
5 Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada K1N 6N5
Abstract. The Permian was a period of waning large-scale
continental glaciations in the southern Hemisphere. The waning of these
ice sheets during the Early Permian led to discharge of 18O-depleted
ice-melt water into the oceans. This, coupled with rising seawater temperatures,
resulted in a concomitant decline of about 2.5 ‰in the δ18O
of seawater, as recorded by brachiopod shells from low-latitude (< 30°)
habitats. The transition from ice- to greenhouse
conditions is reflected also in the oxygen isotope data of unaltered
brachiopods and bivalves
from high latitudes. Moreover, the high-latitude specimens have consistently
more positive
δ18O, by about 2.5‰, than their coeval low-latitude
counterparts, suggesting a Permian sea-
surface temperature (SST) gradient of about 9 to 12°C between tropical-subtropical
(<30°)
and high southern (55 ±10°) latitude localities, apparently
irrespective of whether in a
greenhouse or an icehouse mode. This Permian SST gradient is comparable
to the SST gradient of about 14°C. The δ18O seawater records
suggest that the global warming that resulted in the waning of the Permo-Carboniferous
ice sheets during the Sakmarian was followed by another cooling during
the late Kungurian and by renewed warming during the Mid- and Late Permian.
Institut für Geologie, Mineralogie Korte, C., Jones,
P.J., Brand, U., Mertmann, D. & Veizer, J. (2008) Oxygen isotope
values from Permian high latitudes: clues for palaeolatitudinal sea-surface
temperature gradients and Late Palaeozoic deglaciation. Palaeogeography,
Palaeoclimatatology, Palaeoecology 269, 1-16.