Paleozoic-Mesozoic Boundary Research Articles

NEW EVIDENCE OF THE INDEPENDENT PRECAMBRIAN TECTONIC HISTORY OF THE FADDEY TERRANE OF THE CENTRAL TAIMYR ACCRETIONARY BELT

New geostructural, petro-geochemical, U-Pb geochronological and paleomagnetic data for sills of metagabbro-dolerites of the Severnobyrranga and Yasnenskiy complex specify the paleotectonic position of the Faddey terrane of the Central Taimyr accretionary belt. The structural position of the sills in the rocks of the Oktyabr and Zhdanov formations is indicative of their intrusion before deformations caused by the accretion of the Central Taimyr belt. The U-Th-Pb age of crystallization for the metagabbro-dolerites has been established as 1357 ± 9 Ma. The primary paleomagnetic record reflecting the time of intrusion has not been preserved, but two metachronous components have been identified. The first one corresponds to crust formation processes at ca. 840 Ma due to collision, probably of continent – island arc type involving the cratonic block that included the Faddey and Mamont-Shrenk terranes. These collisional events took place several hundreds of kilometers from the Siberian margin. The second component corresponds to thermal events on the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary and reflects the strike-slip deformation in the Kara orogen.

New Evidence of the Independent Precambrian Tectonic History of the Faddey Terrane of the Central Taimyr Accretionary Belt

New geostructural, petro-geochemical, U–Pb geochronological and paleomagnetic data for sills of metagabbro-dolerites of the Severobyrranga and Yasnenskiy complex specify the paleotectonic position of the Faddey terrane of the Central Taimyr accretionary belt. The structural position of the sills in the rocks of the Oktyabr and Zhdanov formations is indicative of their intrusion before deformations caused by the accretion of the Central Taimyr belt. The U–Th–Pb age of crystallization for the metagabbro-dolerites has been established as 1357 ± 9 Ma. The primary paleomagnetic record reflecting the time of intrusion has not been preserved, but two metachronous components have been identified. The first one corresponds to crust formation processes at ca. 840 Ma due to collision, probably of continent – island arc type involving the cratonic block that included the Faddey and Mamont-Shrenk terranes. These collisional events took place several hundreds of kilometers from the Siberian margin. The second component corresponds to thermal events on the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary and reflects the strike-slip deformation in the Kara orogen.

New Triassic finding in Andız Peninsula (İzmir, Western Turkey) and comparison of pre-Neogene sequences of Andız and Karaburun Peninsulas: Stratigraphic and tectonic implications

This study aims to review the geology of the Andız Peninsula and compare the pre-Neogene Andız succession with the middle part of the Karaburun Peninsula to discuss the nature of the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary in the Karaburun Peninsula. The pre-Neogene units of the Andız Peninsula are represented by the Paleozoic Dikendağı, Triassic Gu?vercinlik, and Jurassic Nohutalan Formations. In this study, the Triassic carbonate rocks in the Andız Peninsula are paleontologically defined for the first time. The Megalodont-bearing Gu?vercinlik Formation contains a late Norian-Rhaetian characteristic foraminiferal assemblage consisting of Aulotortus gr. sinuosus, A. tenuis, A. friedli, A. impressus, and Triasina hantkeni. The Thaumatoporella-bearing Nohutalan Formation conformably overlies the Gu?vercinlik Formation and yields a typical Liassic fossil assemblage of Orbitopsella praecursor, Siphovalvulina gibralterensis, S. colomi, Meandrovoluta asiagoensis, and Palaeodasycladus mediterraneus. In the Andız Peninsula, the Mesozoic Gu?vercinlik and Nohutalan Formations tectonically overlie the Paleozoic Dikendağı Formation along a displacement contact. In the middle Karaburun Peninsula, the Triassic Gerence Formation lies directly on the Dikendağı Formation along a displacement contact. Lateral continuation of this displacement contact is discovered between the Triassic Gerence and Camiboğazı Formations at the top and Paleozoic Dikendağı Formation at the bottom. Further north, the same displacement contact extends into the Paleozoic sequence where the Carboniferous Alandere Formation tectonically overlies the Dikendağı Formation. These observations suggest that the succession in the Karaburun Peninsula ranging from Bashkirian to Cretaceous, is a tectonic slice or a package of slices over the Dikendağı Formation.

Paleomagnetism and Magnetostratigraphy of Permian–Triassic Reference Sections in the Central Russian Plate: Zhukov Ravine, Slukino, and Okskiy Siyezd

Abstract —The Permian–Triassic magnetostratigraphy of the central East European platform has been updated using evidence from the Zhukov Ravine, Slukino and Okskiy Siyezd reference continental redbed sequences. The new data reveal five rather than four polarity subzones in magnetozone R3P, which thus can be ranked up to orthozone RnP. The upper Permian strata of the Zhukov Ravine and Okskiy Siyezd sections contain intervals of anomalous paleomagnetic directions similar to those revealed earlier in roughly coeval rocks from the Nedubrovo section in the Vologda region. The anomaly may be of regional extent and may correspond to quite a long (thousands of years) span of geomagnetic field stability near the Paleozoic–Mesozoic boundary, which fits the subequatorial dipole field in the first approximation. The paleomagnetic results were used to constrain the position of three new Permian–Triassic paleomagnetic poles of the East European platform, corrected for inclination shallowing: PLat = 54.8°, PLong = 173.6°, dp/dm = 2.6°/4.0° (Zhukov Ravine); PLat = 47.6°, PLong = 164.3°, dp/dm = 3.0°/4.8° (Slukino); PLat = 52.7°, PLong = 153.6°, dp/dm = 3.7°/5.4° (Okskiy Siyezd).

Erratum to: On Traces of Non-Equilibrium States in the Evolution of Terrestrial Vertebrate Communities across the Paleozoic–Mesozoic Boundary

Erratum to: On Traces of Non-Equilibrium States in the Evolution of Terrestrial Vertebrate Communities across the Paleozoic–Mesozoic Boundary

On Traces of Non-Equilibrium States in the Evolution of Terrestrial Vertebrate Communities across the Paleozoic–Mesozoic Boundary

Evolutionary change in a living system starts with a disturbance to its equilibrium and an increase in its internal disorderliness. Typical manifestations of this process are exemplified by the transformation of the tetrapod faunas across the Permian–Triassic boundary. These are seen both at the end of the transition to a new equilibrium (in the pioneer Triassic faunas) and at its beginning (in the terminal Permian communities). In the first case, the most distinct manifestations are: unfinished state of structural changes within some new groups; a high degree of endemism of regional pioneer communities, and the heterogeneity of their change with time. In the second case, as can be seen from analysis of the early-crisis (Vyaznikovian) biota of Eastern Europe, the observed events primarily include the “precocious” appearance of some future dominants; the “return” of a number of relics to the fossil record; and examples of explosive group variability in some taxa close to extinction. Actual or probable traces of non-equilibrium changes, similar to those noted in the Vyaznikovian biota, can also be partly traced in other Late Permian faunas of Eurasia and in coeval communities of southern and northern Gondwana.

The Capitanian Minimum: A Unique Sr Isotope Beacon of the Latest Paleozoic Seawater

The long-term trend in the Paleozoic seawater 87Sr/86Sr was punctuated by a unique episode called the “Capitanian minimum” at the end of the Guadalupian (Permian; ca. 260 Ma). This article reviews the nature and timing of this major turning point in seawater Sr isotope composition (87Sr/86Sr, δ88Sr) immediately before the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary (ca. 252 Ma). The lowest value of seawater 87Sr/86Sr (0.7068) in the Capitanian and the subsequent rapid increase at an unusually high rate likely originated from a significant change in continental flux with highly radiogenic Sr. The assembly of the supercontinent Pangea and its subsequent mantle plume-induced breakup were responsible for the overall secular change throughout the Phanerozoic; nonetheless, short-term fluctuations were superimposed by global climate changes. Regarding the unidirectional decrease in Sr isotope values during the early-middle Permian and the Capitanian minimum, the suppression of continental flux was driven by the assembly of Pangea and by climate change with glaciation. In contrast, the extremely rapid increase in Sr isotope values during the Lopingian-early Triassic was induced by global warming. The unique trend change in seawater Sr isotope signatures across the Guadalupian-Lopingian Boundary (GLB) needs to be explained in relation to the unusual climate change associated with a major extinction around the GLB.

Susceptibility of algae to Cr toxicity reveals contrasting metal management strategies.

At the Paleozoic–Mesozoic boundary, the dominance of marine eukaryotic algae shifted from the green (chlorophyll b) to the red (chlorophyll c) superfamily. Selection pressures caused by the bioavailability of trace metals associated with increasing oxygenation of the ocean may have played a key role in this algal revolution. From a scan of elemental compositions, a significant difference in the cellular Cr/P quota was found between the two superfamilies. Here, the different responses to high levels of Cr exposure reveal contrasting strategies for metal uptake and homeostasis in these algal lineages. At high Cr(VI) concentrations, red lineages experience growth inhibition through reduced photosynthetic capability, while green lineages are completely unaffected. Moreover, Cr(VI) has a more significant impact on the metallomes of red lineage algae, in which metal/P ratios increased with increasing Cr(VI) concentration for many trace elements. Green algae have higher specificity transporters to prevent Cr(VI) from entering the cell, and more specific intracellular stores of Cr within the membrane fraction than the red algae, which accumulate more Cr mistakenly in the cytosol fraction via lower affinity transport mechanisms. Green algal approaches require greater nutrient investments in the more numerous transport proteins required and management of specific metals, a strategy better adapted to the resource‐rich coastal waters. By contrast, the red algae are nutrient‐efficient with fewer and less discriminate metal transporters, which can be fast and better adapted in the oligotrophic, oxygenated open ocean, which has prevailed since the deepening of the oxygen minimum zones at the start of the Mesozoic era.

Onset, development, and cessation of basal Early Triassic microbialites (BETM) in the Nanpanjiang pull-apart Basin, South China Block

New investigations in the Nanpanjiang Basin indicate that the onset of the iconic microbialites associated with the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary was Early Triassic in age. Bathymetry (water agitation, oxygenation, light penetration) and clastic load are shown to have exerted a direct control on the growth of microbialites. Carbonate supersaturation is also required for the deposition of the microbialites. Bathymetric control is further corroborated by the inheritance of the topography of a latest Permian pull-apart basin into Early Triassic times, with a distribution of basal Early Triassic microbialites (BETM) restricted to uplifted blocks and the accumulation of carbonaceous black shales in adjacent troughs. The geographically most extensive Nanpanjiang BETM bloomed on a large NW–SE trending uplifted block exceeding 12,000km2 (Luolou Platform) centered on northwestern Guangxi. Post-Triassic displacements along the Youjiang Fault obscure the paleogeographic relation of BETM exposed west of this fault.Triassic foraminifers occur in the basal most BETM episode, which is locally bracketed by high-energy grainstones made of reworked Permian foraminifers. Therefore, the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) is within the unconformity that separates the Late Permian Heshan Fm. from the basal most BETM. Where accommodation space was sufficient, up to five event surfaces are associated with the unconformity. Microfacies analysis supports chemical dissolution but did not reveal evidence for subaerial erosion, although intercalated grainstone made of Permian foraminifers indicate reworking. Chemical dissolution and mechanical erosion both conceivably contributed to the genesis of the unconformity. The upward shift from tabulated to domical microbial build-ups is accompanied by accumulation of coquinoid lenses between domes, which indicates deepening of the Luolou Platform BETM. The main drowning resulting from both regional tectonic subsidence and a global sea-level rise led to the cessation of the BETM that were buried under predominant fine siliciclastics. Any concomitant change in sea water chemistry appears unlikely.

The Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary: the divide of the Phanerozoic

The Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary: the divide of the Phanerozoic

Fossil insects of the middle and upper Permian of European Russia

Fossil insects of European Russia from the Urzhumian to Vyatkian stages are reviewed, new taxa are described, and dynamics of insect taxonomic diversity around the Permian-Triassic boundary in light of the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary global extinction problem is analyzed. Traces of interactions between arthropods and plants are analyzed. Insect-bearing deposits of the Late Paleozoic found in the northern and eastern areas of the East European Platform are unique on the global scale in their completeness and continuity, allowing us to trace especially comprehensively the biotic processes that occurred around the boundary described as the time of the greatest biotic catastrophe of the Phanerozoic. A total of 28 genera and 111 species are newly described. Within the range from the Urzhumian to the Permo-Triassic boundary, 15 representative successive assemblages, including 112 families, are recognized (seven in the area in question and eight in other regions of Asia, Australia, and Africa). New tools are developed for the analysis of the dynamics of diversity. These tools show an approximately equilibrium (slightly positive) dynamics in the Urzhumian and Severodvinian and a drop in diversity during the Vyatkian Age. It is shown that Permian insect assemblages acquired a substantially post-Paleozoic pattern much earlier than the end of the Paleozoic. The character of changes that took place in the Induan and Olenekian remains uncertain, but a large-scale extinction event did not occur here: most families that have not been recorded at the beginning of the Triassic are recorded again in the Middle and Upper Triassic. Nevertheless, a biotic crisis probably actually took place, but was reduced to reorganization of the biota’s structure, which provided enormous growth of biodiversity over subsequent hundreds of millions of years, rather than resulted in catastrophic extinction. This study is intended for entomologists, stratigraphers, and all readers interested in the biotic events that took place around the Permian-Triassic boundary.

Mass extinction of ocean organisms at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary: Effects and causes

At the end of the Permian, at the boundary between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic (251.0 ± 0.4 Ma), the largest mass extinction of organisms on the Earth occurred. Up to 96% of the species of marine invertebrates and ∼70% of the terrestrial vertebrates died off. A lot of factors were suggested and substantiated to explain this mass mortality, such as the disappearance of environmental niches in the course of the amalgamation of the continental plates into Pangea, sea level fluctuations, anoxia, an elevated CO2 content, H2S intoxication, volcanism, methane discharge from gas-hydrates, climate changes, impact events (collisions with large asteroids), or combinations of many of these reasons. Some of these factors are in subordination to others, while others are independent. Almost all of these factors developed relatively slowly and could not cause the sudden mass mortality of organisms globally. It could have happened when large asteroids, whose craters have been discovered lately, fell to the Earth. It is suggested that the impact events “finished off” the already suppressed biota. A simultaneous change in many of the factors responsible for the biodiversity, including those not connected in a cause-and-effect relationship, proves the existence of a common extrater-restrial cause that affected both the changes in the internal and external geospheres and the activation of asteroid attacks (the Sun’s transit of spiral arms of our galaxy, the Sun’s oscillations perpendicularly to the galactic plane, etc).

Causes of mass extinction of sea organisms at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary

At the end of the Permian, at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary (251.0 ± 0.4 Ma ago), 96% of oceanic organisms became extinct. The extinction lasted three million years, but the most intense and abrupt event was 251.4 Ma ago. A series of more or less substantiated hypotheses was suggested to explain this catastrophe: anoxia, higher CO2 and H2S contents, fall of the sea level, volcanism, and impact events confirmed by several impact craters. The synchronous variation in many factors responsible for biodiversity reduction, including those without casual relations, proves the existence of a common cause of primarily cosmic origin.

Middle Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary of the North Asian craton and the Okhotsk terrane: new geochemical and geochronological data and their geodynamic interpretation

Abstract. The Okhotsk terrane, located east of the South Verkhoyansk sector of the Verkhoyansk fold-and-thrust belt, has Archean crystalline basement and Riphean to Early Paleozoic sedimentary cover similar to that of the adjacent the North Asian craton. However, 2.6 Ga biotite orthogneisses of the Upper Maya uplift of the Okhotsk terrane yielded Early Devonian 40Ar/39Ar cooling ages, evidence of a Mid-Paleozoic metamorphic event not previously known. These gneisses are also intruded by 375±2 Ma (Late Devonian) calc-alkaline granodiorite plutons that we interpret as part of a continental margin volcanic arc. Therefore, Late Devonian rifting, which affected the entire eastern margin of North Asia separating the Okhotsk terrane from the North Asian craton, was probably a back-arc event. Our limited 40Ar/39Ar data from the South Verkhoyansk metamorphic belt suggests that low grade metamorphism and deformation started in the Late Jurassic due to accretion of the Okhotsk terrane to the North Asia margin along the Bilyakchan fault. Shortening and ductile strain continued in the core of the South Verkhoyansk metamorphic belt until about 120 Ma due to paleo-Pacific subduction along the Uda-Murgal continental margin arc.

Petrology of the parental melts and mantle sources of Siberian trap magmatism

Based on the investigation of olivine phenocrysts and melt and spinel inclusions in them from the picrites of the Gudchikhinsky Formation and olivine phenocrysts and the whole-rock geochemistry from the Tuklonsky and Nadezhdinsky formations of the Noril’sk region, the compositions and conditions of formation and evolution of the parental melts and mantle sources of Siberian trap magmatism were evaluated. Olivine phenocrysts from the samples studied are enriched in Ni and depleted in Mn compared with olivines equilibrated with the products of peridotite melting, which suggests a considerable role of a nonperidotitic component (olivine-free pyroxenite) in their mantle source. The onset of Siberian trap magmatism (Gudchikhinsky Formation) was related to the melting of pyroxenite produced by the interaction of ancient recycled oceanic crust with mantle peridotite. During the subsequent evolution of the magmatic system (development of the Tuklonsky and Nadezhdinsky formations), the fraction of the pyroxenite component in the source region decreased rapidly (to 40 and 60%, respectively) owing to the entrainment of peridotite material into the melting zone. The formation of magmas was significantly affected by the contamination by continental crustal material. The primitive magmas of the Gudchikhinsky Formation crystallized under near-surface conditions at temperatures of 1250–1170°C and oxygen fugacities 2.5–3.0 orders of magnitude below the Ni-NiO buffer. Simultaneously, the magmas were contaminated by continental silicic rocks and evaporites. The parental magmas of the Gudchikhinsky rocks corresponded to tholeiitic picrites with 11–14 wt % MgO. They were strongly undersaturated in sulfur, contained less than 0.25 wt % water and carbon dioxide, and were chemically similar to the Hawaiian tholeiites. They were produced by melting of a pyroxenite source at depths of 130–180 km in a mantle plume with a potential temperature of 1500–1580°C. The presence of low melting temperature pyroxenite material in the source of Siberian trap magmas promoted the formation of considerable volumes of melt under the thick continental lithosphere, which could trigger its catastrophic collapse. The contribution of pyroxenite-derived melt to the magmas of the Siberian trap province was no less than 40–50%. This component, whose solid residue was free of sulfides and olivine, played a key role in the origin of high contents of Ni, Cu, and Pt-group elements and low sulfur contents in the parental trap magmas and prevented the early dispersion of these elements at the expense of sulfide melt fractionation. The high contents of Cl in the magmas resulted in considerable HCl emission into the atmosphere and could be responsible for the mass extinction at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary.

Late Paleozoic and Mesozoic deformations in the southwestern Primorye region

Two types of tectonic deformations indicating different geodynamic settings are defined in the southwestern Primorye region. Near-latitudinal compression forces were responsible for the oldest, Late Paleozoic deformations. The Permian stratified complexes host a near-meridional system of folds and zones of dynamothermal metamorphism, cleavage, and foliation oriented orthogonally relative to the compression. Late Proterozoic (?) mafic-ultramafic rocks are characterized by similar deformations. In the Late Permian, the deformations were accompanied by granitoid magmatism controlled by fold and cleavage structures. The younger, Mesozoic deformations produced by near-meridional compression are represented by NE-trending sinistral strike-slip faults and their structural parageneses: an ENE-trending system of folds and downdip-thrusts both superimposed on Paleozoic protostructures and manifested in Mesozoic and Cenozoic sequences. It is inferred that, at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary, near-latitudinal compression was replaced by near-meridional compression, probably, in response to the corresponding change in direction of the lateral displacement of the interacting Asian continent and (or) Pacific Plate.

Petroleum potential of reservoirs at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary in West Siberia: seismogeological criteria ( example of the Chuzik-Chizhapka regional oil-gas accumulation)

The study aims at developing petroleum potential criteria for reservoirs at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary in West Siberia, by the example of the Chuzik-Chizhapka regional oil and gas accumulation in the Parabel District (Tomsk Region). Oil and gas accumulations in formations of the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary were discovered in the Archa, Urman, Gerasimovka, Kalinovoe, North Kalinovoe, Tambai, Ostanino, North Ostanino, and other fields within the Chuzik-Chizhapka zone. Hydrocarbons are hosted by reservoirs of different lithologies and ages, including Devonian and Carboniferous organic, dolomite, and siliceous limestones and argillaceous-siliceous rocks. Synthetic interpretation of seismic profiling and log data was used to model the geological structure of the Chuzik-Chizhapka regional accumulation, to develop potential criteria for reservoirs of the Paleozoic basement and weathering zone, and to suggest methods for detection of complex traps in upper Paleozoic strata.

Geomagnetic field in the vicinity of the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary and the Siberian superplume

[1] The aim of this study was to generalize the data available for the paleointensity, polarity, and frequency of reversals, and variations in the direction of the geomagnetic field in the vicinity of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic (P/T) boundary which had been marked by a peak in the magmatic activity of series superplumes, including that of the Siberian traps (251 Ma). However, no specific features have been found for the behavior of the field at that time. Some notable changes in its paleointensity had occurred 30 million years before the P/T boundary: the reversals frequency and polarity of the field changed during a period of 15 million years before the P/T boundary. The global changes of the average magnitude of the field direction variations from the unstable state with variations of 6 ‐10 to 6 ‐7 marked the lower and upper boundaries of the Kiama hyperchron (the stable state of the reversed-polarity field). The transition of the Kiama hyperchron to the Illawara hyperchron of frequent polarity changes was marked by the growth of the field variation magnitude from 6 (265 Ma) to 8 ‐9 (240 Ma). The regular growth of the field variation magnitude is marked with approaching to the center of Sibirian traps from the normal state, averaging 7 ‐8 , to 11 ‐12 , which demonstrated a connection between the local disturbance in the Earth core at its boundary with the mantle and the formation of the Siberian superplume. The growth of the field variation magnitude continued during a time period of 20‐50 million years befor the P/T boundary and maximum activity of the Siberian trap formation, reflecting the time of the superplume rise from the base of the mantle to the Earth surface. This pattern is similar to the World magnetic anomalies, modern plumes, and the plumes in the vicinity of the Mesozoic-Cenozoic (Mz-Kz) boundary, this proving the same origin of the lower-mantle plumes and world magnetic anomalies. INDEX TERMS: 1521 Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism: Paleointensity; 1535 Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism: Reversals: process, timescale, magnetostratigraphy; 1540 Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism: Rock and mineral magnetism; KEYWORDS: Geomagnetic field, Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary, superplume, paleointensity.

New paleomagnetic data for the Permian-Triassic Trap rocks of Siberia and the problem of a non-dipole geomagnetic field at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary

between them. Discussed in this paper are four potential factors that had caused the observed dierences between the paleomagnetic poles of Siberia and Europe: (1) the large-scale relative movements of these cratons in post-Paleozoic time, (2) the dierent ages of the compared paleomagnetic poles, (3) the substantial contribution of non-dipole components to the geomagnetic field at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary, and (4) the shallowing of the magnetic inclination in the European sedimentary rocks. Also discussed is the adequacy of the data selection. Arguments are advanced to prove that the possibility of the post-Paleozoic large-scale relative displacements of the cratonic blocks discussed as well as considerable age dierence of their mean poles is unlikely. Also estimated were the input quadrupolar and octupolar sources in the total time-average geomagnetic field and also values of the inclination shallowing factor, which might have explained the observed discordance of the Siberian and European poles. The best agreement of the European and Siberian paleomagnetic data was achieved for the octupolar coecient g3 = 10% or for the inclination shallowing factor f = 0.62. Our calculations showed that the statistically significant dierence between the Siberian and European average poles can be removed assuming a very small value of the inclination shallowing corresponding to the f values of 0.9 to 0.95, potentially associated with some compaction of the studied sedimentary rocks. This gives grounds for interpreting the low inclinations in the European objects as the most probable source of the observed disagreement between the European and Siberian paleomagnetic data. INDEX TERMS: 1520 Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism: Magnetostratigraphy; 1525 Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism: Paleomagnetism applied to tectonics: regional, global; 3040 Marine Geology and Geophysics: Plate tectonics; KEYWORDS: paleomagnetism, Siberian traps, Stable Europe, non-dipole field, inclination shallowing.

Relation of selected mineral deposits to the mass/age distribution of Phanerozoic sediments

The global mass/age distribution of Phanerozoic sediment shows maxima in the Middle Paleozoic, at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary, and in the Late Mesozoic. All of these total sediment mass maxima are also maxima of masses of volcanogenic sediment and non-marine sediment, and represent times of maximum sediment flux on the surface of the earth. The Middle Paleozoic and Late Mesozoic maxima correspond to the great marine inundations of the continents, and the Late Paleozoic-Early Mesozoic maximum to the time of transfer of a large number of terranes across the Tethys from Gondwanaland to Eurasia. All three maxima of sedimentary mass correspond to times of rapid sea-floor spreading and orogeny.