Onshore climate change during the Late Triassic marine inundation of the Central European Basin

Abstract

Sedimentological, pedological and palynological evidence reveal radically increasing onshore humidity during the Rhaetian marine invasion of central Europe along the north‐eastern margin of the Central European Basin (southern Sweden). Pre‐Rhaetian aridity favoured the formation of Carnian redbeds with calcrete, which were succeeded by Norian hematite‐cemented conglomerates, arkoses, arkosic wackestones, and smectititic mudstones deposited on braidplains and in lakes. Superimposed autochthonous coals and gleysols indicate the Rhaetian onset of year‐round humidity. Chemically mature sandstones, kaolinitic mudstones and luvisols also formed at this time, influenced by a permanent vegetation cover which lowered soil pH and strongly intensified chemical weathering. The Rhaetian deposits accumulated in floodplain lakes repeatedly subjected to sediment infill, plant colonization and palaeosol development. The humidity shift resembles that contemporaneously recorded in the North Sea region.