1. THE LATE PALEOZOIC THE CARBONIFEROUS 360-286 MY
W.D. Conybeare & W. Phillips 1822
MISSISSIPPIAN>> Mississippi River Valley
PENNSYLVANIAN>> Pennsylvania
T.C. Chamberlain & R.D. Salisbury 1906
THE PERMIAN MY
PERM>> Central Russia
Roderick Murchison 1841

3. INTRODUCTION Mississippian- 40 MY: Pennsylvanian- 34 MY
Permian- 38 MY Duration
Suturing of Pangea
Alleghenian and Hercynian Orogenies
Western terrane accretions in North America
Formation of the Ural Mountains

4. INTRODUCTION Tropical Climates around the Tethys Ocean
High stands of sea level (Mississippian epicontinental seas)
Tropical swamps during the Pennsylvanian (coal measures)
Land plant diversity, insects evolved, reptiles evolved
Permian redbeds (tropical desert climate)
Glaciations in Gondwana

5. Paleogeography

6. Paleogeography

7. PALEOGEOGRAPHY Opening of the Tethys Ocean
Kazakhstan closed on Baltica
Continuation of Antler Orogeny
Other terranes collided with Canada
Beginning of Hercynian Orogeny in southern Europe
Final collision of Gondwana to Laurentia in Pennsylvanian
Alleghenian (E US) and Ouachita Orogenies (S US & S. AM)
S. Am collided with TX forming ancestral Rockies
Well defined Tethys Ocean in the Permian

8. PALEOGEOGRAPHY
Pangea formed a large U-shaped super-continent stretching from pole to pole
Tethys Ocean formed an equatorial reentrant basin on the east
The Panthallassic Ocean covered the rest of the globe

9. PALEOGEOGRAPHY

10. Paleogeography
Pangea almost complete by the Permian except for a few microcontinents that assembled in the Triassic and Jurassic
Late Paleozoic most widespread period of collisional mountain building
The major orogeny of the Permian was the Uralian Orogeny>> Ural Mountains
The final formation of the Appalachians

11. TECTONIC EVENTS The Hercynian Orogeny The North American Cordillera
Southern Europe-Baltica
6000km long, lasted 30my, intense metamorphism, volcanism and plutonism
The North American Cordillera
Continuation of Antler Orogeny
Ellesmere Orogeny (Canada and Alaska)
The Alleghenian and Ouachita Orogenies
Final phase of Appalachians- Thrust sheets
Ancestral Rockies uplifted
The Uralian Orogeny

12. Location of the Principal Highland Areas of the SW US During the Pennsylvanian

13. Orogenic Development Of the Eastern US

14. The Appalachians Valley and Ridge Blue Ridge Province Inner Piedmont
folded & faulted sedimentary rks
Blue Ridge Province
metamorphosed Precambrian and Paleozoic Rks
Inner Piedmont
high grade metamorphic rks intruded by granites
Charlotte & Carolina Slate Belt
metamorphosed & folded late Proterozoic & Cambrian sediments and volcanics

15. Physiographic Provinces of the Appalachian Region

16. Late Paleozoic Continental Collisions

17. Highland Areas Associated with the Antler Orogeny of California- Nevada
Collision of Antler arc with
North American craton
during the Mississippian
creating the Roberts Mountains

18. An interpretation of conditions in the Cordilleran orogenic belt in Early Mississippian time, shortly after the Antler orogeny.

19. Craton remained intact while collisions occurred on all sides
NEOPROTEROZOIC TO CENOZOIC TRANSGRESSIONS AND REGRESSIONS OBSERVED ON THE CRATON
Variable sea level represented sequences of sediments bounded by unconformities on all of the cratons -
Major unconformity
due to regression
Craton remained intact while
collisions occurred on all sides
Sea levels remained high during
the Permo-Carboniferous and
especially during the Mississippian
Sea level occilations on the order
of 200m and 1600km occurred 2
to 3 times every million year

20. CYCLOTHEMS Cratonic sediments dominated by cycles
Rock types repeat in a cyclic manner
Rock units of a meter or so can be traced for 100s of kilometers
Coal Measures- 10 to 20 m sections of 10 rock units showing a regression/transgression separated by a coal seam (typical, mid continent)

21. CYCLOTHEMS 150-200m changes in sea level
Represented in Illinois by 60 cyclothems
Representing 20 to 25 my
Representing a 300,000 year cycle
Changes in global sea level caused by waxing and waning of Gondwana glaciations

22. Coal Bearing Cyclothem: Idealized Sequence of 10 Layers
Illinois Cyclothem

23. 750km of reefs {sponges, algae, brachiopods and bryozoans}
The Permian Midland and Delaware Basins of West Texas
750km of reefs {sponges, algae, brachiopods and bryozoans}
Deep marine basins
m below sea level
Arid conditions represented by red beds and evaporites

24. Permian of West Texas Lagoonal sediments and evaporites
Reef front- Phylloid
Algae, sponge frame
work
Black carbonate mud
deep water sedimentation
with some reef ruble

26. Economic Deposits
Coal- Rapid accumulations of partially decayed vascular plant tissue in anoxic conditions: peat>lignite>bituminous
Pennsylvanian: Appalachian and Illinois Basin
Oil & Gas
Permian: West Texas & North Sea

27. Coal Seams in fluvial cross-bedded Mississippian Sandstones

28. Formation of Oil and Gas
Most Oil formed in marine environments
Organic rich sediments are deposited fast and buried before decomposition
These sediments are mainly younger than 500 Million Years
Organic material converted to oil and natural gas (hydrocarbons, e.g. CH4) upon burial, by geothermal heat ( F)
Oil and gas migrate from source rock to permeable rock
If trapped oil and gas can be recovered

29. Formation of Oil and Gas
Decay of algae and bacteria
Burial
Cooking (temperature + pressure)
Formation of Hydrocarbon
Favorable Preservation Conditions
High organic production (over 10%)
Anaerobic depositional systems
Moderate to low rate of sedimentation

30. Hydrocarbon Needs
Source Rock
Reservoir Rock
Trapping Mechanism
Timing

33. Economic Deposits Sodium & Potassium salts Phosphates (Fertilizers)
Phosphoria Fm.
Metal ores (tin, copper, zinc, lead, silver, gold, platinum)
Appalachian Orogeny

34. Late-Paleozoic Climates
Coal formation in low and high latitudes
W. Europe and E. North America tropical climates
cool moist climates in Siberia, China and Australia

35. Late-Paleozoic Climates
Strong zonation in climates
Glacial climates in Gondwana
Tillites and dropstones Africa, S. America and India
Hot arid climates in low latitudes
Redbeds and evaporites in central and western North America

36. Paleoclimatic Indicators
Red- Coal
Blue-Tillites
Green- Evaporites

37. LATE PALEOZOIC LIFE Land Plants Radiation of the Insects
Radiation of the Amphibians
The Origin of Reptiles
Mammal-like Reptiles
Pelycosaurs and Therapsids

38. Marine Environment
Radiation of brachiopods, ammonoids, bryozoans, crinoids, forams and calcareous algae after Devonian extinction
Mississippian “Age of Crinoids”
Phylloid Algal mounds of the Pennsylvanian
Sponge-Bryozoan reefs
Fusulinid foraminifera of the Pennsylvanian and Permian

39. Life of the Mississippian
Crinoids

40. Radiation of the Insects
Co-evolution of plants, insects and amphibians
Number of families appear in the Early Pennsylvanian
Wingless insects (hexapods)
Winged insects
Fixed and folding wings

41. Evolution of Amphibians
10’s of million of years
of evolutionary history
between crossopterygian
fishes and true amphibians

42. Reptilian evolution from amphibian ancestor took 22 my
First reptile in Late
Mississippian
4 major groups of reptiles
Anapsida
Synapsida
Diapsida
Euryapsida

43. Reptilian Amniote Egg

44. Anapsids
no opening
(Turtles)
Synapsids and
Euryapsids
one opening; low/
high
(therapsids- ancestors
to mammals/ ich-
thyosaurs
Diapsids
two openings
(lizards, snakes,
dinosaurs)

45. Pelycosaur
Dimetrodon

46. Mammal-Like Reptiles-
Cynognathus (carnivorous)
Kannemeyeria (plant eating therapsid reptile)
Mammals acquired most characteristics (50%)
in the last 8 my of Permian

47. The Bear Gulch and Mazon Creek Faunas
Soft part preservation
Bear Gulch: Mississippian finely laminated limestone deposits of Montana preserving fish fossils
Mazon Creek: Pennsylvanian deltaic storm deposit of Illinois containing concretions with fossil plants and soft bodied marine fossils

48. Mass Extinctions

49. Permian Mass Extinction
90% of marine species became extinct
54% of the families
Final 10 my of Permian

50. Permian Mass Extinction
Fauna & Flora that became extinct
All Paleozoic Corals, all Fusilinids, all Trilobites, Eurypterids and Blastoids and most sea urchins, brachiopods, crinoids, bryozoans; Glossopteris flora and many insects
Causes
Glaciations (drop in sea level), reduction in area of shallow seas
changes in climate due to Siberian flood basalts (CO3), drop in oxygen from 33% to 14%