Previous |
Abstract:
CLIMATIC, BIOTIC, AND TECTONIC, POLE-TO-POLE CORING TRANSECT
OF TRIASSIC-JURASSIC PANGEA
The breakup of Pangea resulted in the largest known rift
province, and a spectacular sedimentary and igneous record of early Mesozoic
events and processes. The US NSF- and ICDP - funded, "International Workshop
for a Climatic, Biotic, and Tectonic, Pole-to Pole Coring Transect of Triassic-Jurassic
Pangea" was held on June 5-9, 1999 at Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova
Scotia, Canada. Fifty-six scientists from thirteen countries met to define
to plan this global scientific coring program. Nearly the entire record
of one of these basins, the Newark rift of the northeastern USA, has already
been recovered in 6700 m of core by the US NSF-funded Newark Basin Coring
Project, producing the longest continuous record of astronomical climate
forcing and an astronomically tuned geomagnetic polarity time scale for
the Triassic and Jurassic spanning roughly 31 my. It is within this new
context that the workshop focused on three basic themes: 1) climate, astronomical
forcing, and planetary chaos; 2) Pangean break-up and the giant CAMP flood
basalt event; and 3) biotic change in a Hot-House world and the Triassic-Jurassic
mass extinction. Possible coring areas addressing these themes are: 1)
A low latitude conjugate transect (seaward dipping reflectors, SE USA and
Africa); 2) A mid-latitude conjugate transect (Fundy rift of Canada and
Moroccan basins); 3) A high latitude transect (East Greenland and Germanic
basins); 4) the Colorado Plateau; 5) marine strata of Sicily; and 6) the
polar coal basins of Siberia.
Published in: Olsen, P. E. and Kent, D. V., 2000, Climatic,
biotic, and tectonic, pole-to-pole transect of Triassic-Jurassic Pangea.
Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v. 32, no. 1, p.
A-63.
ICDP Newsletter Summary | Full WWW Report to NSF and ICDP |