Comment on “Chronostratigraphy and Paleoclimatology of the Lodève Basin, France: Evidence for a pan-tropical aridification event across the Carboniferous–Permian boundary” by Michel, L. A., Tabor, N. J., Montañez, I. P., Schmitz, M. D., & Davydov, V. I. (2015). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 430, 118–131

Abstract

In a recent paper Michel et al. (2015) question our propositions (see Pochat and Van den Driessche, 2011) that filling sequences in Late Paleozoic continental basins do not necessarily reflect a global climate change but must take into account the effect of tectonics at different scales of time and space. Michel et al. (2015) challenge our work by providing new radiometric data in the Graissessac-Lodeve Basin, which change the chronostratigraphic setting of the basin and seem to invalidate our estimation of the sedimentation rates. Along with this new framework, Michel et al. (2015) provide an analysis of paleosol sequences in the basin. They finally propose the Graissessac- Lodeve Basin to be a textbook case of the effects of the increasing aridity between Late Carboniferous to Early Permian times at the scale of Pangea solely due to a global climate change. For the authors, tectonics did not control the main sedimentary sequence of this basin, and the sedimentary facies, especially paleosols, are univocally interpreted in term of climate variation.