Late Paleozoic tropical climate response to Gondwanan deglaciation
- 1Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
- 2Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
- 3Department of Geology, One Shields Avenue, University of California–Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA
- 4Department of Geophysical Sciences, 5734 South Ellis Avenue, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
Abstract
Coupled climate-biome model simulations of the late Paleozoic were developed to determine the response of Pangean tropical climate to Gondwanan deglaciation. The model simulations predict substantial changes over equatorial Pangea including continental drying, a reversal of equatorial winds, warming, heavier δ18O values of meteoric precipitation, and the expansion of deserts and the contraction of forests. The magnitude of these tropical responses is sensitive to the extent of Gondwana continental ice and the deglacial rise in atmospheric pCO2, boundary conditions that are not well known for the late Paleozoic. Nonetheless the model predictions are consistent with climatic and environmental trends determined from terrestrial proxy data, implying that the deglaciation of Gondwana was a transformational climate event in tropical Pangea.
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- Accepted 5 April 2007.
- Received 27 February 2007.
- Revision received 2 April 2007.
- The Geological Society of America, Inc.
