International correlation
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C. N. Waters, I. D. Somerville, M. H. Stephenson, 2011. "International correlation", A Revised Correlation of Carboniferous Rocks in the British Isles, C. N. Waters, I. D. Somerville, N. S. Jones, C. J. Cleal, J. D. Collinson, R. A. Waters, B. M. Besly, M. T. Dean, M. H. Stephenson, J. R. Davies, E. C. Freshney, D. I. Jackson, W. I. Mitchell, J. H. Powell, W. J. Barclay, M. A. E. Browne, B. E. Leveridge, S. L. Long, D. McLean
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Abstract
Globally, the Carboniferous System can be subdivided into two time intervals, associated with a climatic change which produced quite distinct ?oral and faunal distribution and characteristics of sedimentation (Wagner & Winkler Prins 1991). The early Carboniferous, equivalent to the Mississippian of the USA and Lower Carboniferous of Russia, was a time of equitable climate in which sea levels were generally high and successions within low latitudes were typically marine. Unobstructed marine communication between the Palaeo-Tethys and Panthalassan shelves (Davydov et al. 2004) allowed marine fauna to have a world-wide distribution, in which latitudinal variations were stronger than longitudinal differences (Ross & Ross 1988). The late Carboniferous, equivalent to the Pennsylvanian of the USA, and Middle and Upper Carboniferous of Russia, is typi?ed by coal-bearing successions that displayed marked latitudinal climatic differentiation associated with the Gondwanan Ice Age. The mid-Carboniferous boundary, which separates the two climatic periods, is associated with widespread regression and on many cratonic areas by the presence of a non-sequence or unconformity. The comparable transition is seen in Western Europe between the Visean and Namurian stages, though this is not a direct time equivalent of the Mississippian–Pennsylvanian boundary (Fig. 2). The carbonate-dominated succession of the Visean and terrestrial clastic-dominated succession of the Namurian are interpreted as a facies change with no world-wide signi?cance (Wagner & Winkler Prins 1991).
During the Carboniferous, Gondwana was located at high southern latitudes. South America, Africa, India, Arabia, Australia and Antarctica were affected by near-field glaciations.