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The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period 358.9 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, 298.9 million years ago. The name Carboniferous means "coal-bearing", from the Latin carbō ("coal") and ferō, and refers to the many coal beds formed globally during that time.
The Permian is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period 298.9 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleozoic Era; the following Triassic Period belongs to the Mesozoic Era. The concept of the Permian was introduced in 1841 by geologist Sir Roderick Murchison, who named it after the region of Perm in Russia.
The PaleozoicEra is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name Paleozoic was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words palaiós and zōḗ, "life", meaning "ancient life").
Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. It is typically hard but friable. Its quality is ranked higher than lignite and sub-bituminous coal, but lesser than anthracite. It is the most abundant rank of coal, with deposits found around the world, often in rocks of Carboniferous age. Bituminous coal is formed from sub-bituminous coal that is buried deeply enough to be heated to 85 °C (185 °F) or higher.
Laurasia was the more northern of two large landmasses that formed part of the Pangaea supercontinent from around 335 to 175 million years ago (Mya), the other being Gondwana. It separated from Gondwana 215 to 175 Mya during the breakup of Pangaea, drifting farther north after the split and finally broke apart with the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean c. 56 Mya. The name is a portmanteau of Laurentia and Asia.
The Cisuralian is the first series/epoch of the Permian. The Cisuralian was preceded by the Pennsylvanian and followed by the Guadalupian. The Cisuralian Epoch is named after the western slopes of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan and dates between 298.9 ± 0.15 – 272.3 ± 0.5 Mya.
The late Paleozoic icehouse, also known as the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA) and formerly known as the Karoo ice age, was an ice age that began in the Late Devonian and ended in the Late Permian, occurring from 360 to 255 million years ago (Mya), and large land-based ice-sheets were then present on Earth's surface. It was the second major icehouse period of the Phanerozoic. It is named after the tillite found in the Karoo Basin of western South Africa, where evidence for the ice age was first clearly identified in the 19th century.
John James Stevenson was an American geologist, born in New York City. He graduated from New York University in 1863, became professor of chemistry at West Virginia University for two years (1869–71), then served as professor of geology at New York University until 1909. During 1873–74 and from 1878 to 1880 he was geologist for the United States Geological Survey. He also served on the Pennsylvania Geological Survey from 1875 to 1878 and from 1881 to 1882. He was president of the Geological Society of America in 1898.
Dendrerpeton is a genus of an extinct group of temnospondyl amphibians. Its fossils have been found primarily in the Joggins Formation of Eastern Canada and in Ireland. It lived during the Carboniferous and is said to be around 309–316 million years of age, corresponding to more specifically the Westphalian (stage) age. Of terrestrial temnospondyl amphibians evolution, it represents the first stage. Although multiple species have been proposed, the species unanimously recognized is D. acadianum. This species name comes from “Acadia” which is a historical name for the Nova Scotia region as a French colony. It refers to the location of the coal field at which the fossil was found.
The Beacon Supergroup is a geological formation exposed in Antarctica and deposited from the Devonian to the Triassic. The unit was originally described as either a formation or sandstone, and upgraded to group and supergroup as time passed. It contains a sandy member known as the Beacon Heights Orthoquartzite.
(Stanley) Keith Runcorn was a British physicist whose paleomagnetic reconstruction of the relative motions of Europe and America revived the theory of continental drift and was a major contribution to plate tectonics.
Pangaea or Pangea was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous approximately 335 million years ago, and began to break apart about 200 million years ago, at the end of the Triassic and beginning of the Jurassic. In contrast to the present Earth and its distribution of continental mass, Pangaea was centred on the equator and surrounded by the superocean Panthalassa and the Paleo-Tethys and subsequent Tethys Oceans. Pangaea is the most recent supercontinent to have existed and the first to be reconstructed by geologists.
William Gilbert Chaloner FRS was a British palaeobotanist. He was Professor of Botany in the Earth Sciences Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Visiting Professor in Earth Sciences at University College, London.
The Carboniferous rainforest collapse (CRC) was a minor extinction event that occurred around 305 million years ago in the Carboniferous period. It altered the vast coal forests that covered the equatorial region of Euramerica. This event may have fragmented the forests into isolated refugia or ecological 'islands', which in turn encouraged dwarfism and, shortly after, extinction of many plant and animal species. Following the event, coal-forming tropical forests continued in large areas of the Earth, but their extent and composition were changed.
A coal ball is a type of concretion, varying in shape from an imperfect sphere to a flat-lying, irregular slab. Coal balls were formed in Carboniferous Period swamps and mires, when peat was prevented from being turned into coal by the high amount of calcite surrounding the peat; the calcite caused it to be turned into stone instead. As such, despite not actually being made of coal, the coal ball owes its name to its similar origins as well as its similar shape with actual coal.
The Ballagan Formation is a geologic formation in Scotland and England. It preserves fossils dating back to the early part of the Carboniferous period. Its name comes from the "Ballagan Beds" of Ballagan Glen, near Strathblane, which has a good example of this geological formation.
Margaret E. Collinson is a paleobotanist at Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom.
The Junggar Basin is one of the largest sedimentary basins in Northwest China. It is located in Xinjiang, and enclosed by the Tarbagatai Mountains of Kazakhstan in the northwest, the Altai Mountains of Mongolia in the northeast, and the Heavenly Mountains in the south. The geology of Junggar Basin mainly consists of sedimentary rocks underlain by igneous and metamorphic basement rocks. The basement of the basin was largely formed during the development of the Pangea supercontinent during complex tectonic events from Precambrian to late Paleozoic time. The basin developed as a series of foreland basins – in other words, basins developing immediately in front of growing mountain ranges – from Permian time to the Quaternary period. The basin's preserved sedimentary records show that the climate during the Mesozoic era was marked by a transition from humid to arid conditions as monsoonal climatic effects waned. The Junggar basin is rich in geological resources due to effects of volcanism and sedimentary deposition. According to Guinness World Records it is a land location remotest from open sea with great-circle distance of 2,648 km from the nearest open sea at 46°16′8″N86°40′2″E.
Stan Wood was a self-taught fossil hunter who dazzled the academic world with his ability to make significant palaeontological discoveries at scale and is arguably most celebrated for refocusing attention on early Carboniferous palaeobiology as the means to closing Romer's gap.
References
- ↑ "Professor Andrew Cunningham Scott". Royal Holloway University of London. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
- 1 2 Crelling, John C. "2007 Gilbert H. Cady Award". Geological Society of America. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
- 1 2 Scott, Andrew Cunningham (Winter 2012). "OMT Academics – Andrew Scott" (PDF). Concordia: 22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 June 2013.
- ↑ "Pyrogeography – fire's place in earth system science". National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. The Regents of the University of California. 2013. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
- ↑ "Fire on Earth: An Introduction". Wiley. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
- ↑ "Awards made in 2012" (PDF). Annual Review 2012. Leverhulme Trust. 2013. p. 69.
- ↑ "Early Geology". In Our Time. BBC. 4 April 2012. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
