Timing of the Late Palaeozoic glaciation in western Gondwana: New ages and correlations from Paganzo and Paraná basins

Abstract

During the Late Palaeozoic, the Gondwana supercontinent formed an extensive Southern Hemisphere landmass that was affected by multiple glacial episodes, known collectively as the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age (LPIA). This resulted in the deposition of glacial, periglacial and deglacial sediments over much of the supercontinent. The Mississippian to early Pennsylvanian phase of glaciation is widely represented along the western margin of Gondwana. This constitutes one of the largest glaciations of the Phanerozoic in terms of its recorded extent and the widespread erosional hiatus it produced in the stratigraphic record. It was this mid Carboniferous glaciation, recorded in the Paganzo Basin of NW Argentina, that carved most of the paleovalleys and paleofjords present there. We report new U-Pb zircon ages from a single glacial succession (Guandacol Formation) of 326 ± 3 Ma and 320 ± 5 Ma, that in comparison with neighbouring dated sequences allow for the first time a reliable estimate of the timing and duration of glacial cycles. Palynological studies of these glacial-deglacial events yielded palynoassemblages of the MQ (Late Visean) and DMa (Sepukhovian-Bashkirian) Palynozones. The Carboniferous glacially-related strata and glacial cycles of the Paganzo Basin are compared here with equivalent units of the Paraná Basin of SE Brazil, suggesting a similar climate record for most of western Gondwana. We propose a new correlation between these two basins. The new U-Pb zircon ages reported here indicate that a regional glacial peak occurred almost coincident with the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary, suggesting that the ensuing postglacial transgression is the best regional marker to differentiate the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian as it forms an identifiable interbasinal horizon. The biostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic comparison with other LPIA successions from South America reinforces that the First Appearance Datum of monosaccate pollen grains occurs in the late Serpukhovian. Their correlation confirms that similar climate conditions prevailed across most of western Gondwana during this phase of the LPIA.