Explosive eruptions from volcanoes are recorded in the stratigraphic record throughout the Phanerozoic, but evidence of these eruptions in the form of preserved tephra layers appears to be concentrated at times of active plate collision and concomitant high stands of sea level. The products of volcanic eruptions are lavas, tephra, and gases. Basaltic magmas (low-silica content) are usually erupted in the form of lava flows, whereas rhyolitic magmas (high-silica content) are commonly explosively erupted as plinian and ultraplinian plumes, and associated pyroclastic flows. Fallout tephras are preserved in ancient sedimentary sequences as tonsteins, bentonites, and K-bentonites. Middle Ordovician K-bentonites represent some of the largest known fallout ash deposits in the Phanerozoic Era. They cover minimally 2.2 × 10 6 km 2 in eastern North America and 6.9 × 10 5 km 2 in central and northwestern Europe as a result of explosive volcanism, which affected both Laurentia and Baltica during the closure of the Iapetus Ocean. The three most widespread beds are the Deicke and Millbrig K-bentonites in North America and the Kinnekulle K-bentonite in northwestern Europe. Similar successions are well known in South America and China. Sedimentation rates of volcanic ejecta range from meters per year locally to ~1 mm/1000 yr in the deep sea. Volcanogenic sediments react with seawater to produce secondary phases such as zeolites and clay minerals. Studies of recent ashfall behavior suggest that the preservation potential in the stratigraphic record can be viewed as somewhat remarkable in that such sudden events are preserved at all, much less produce such a wealth of valuable geologic information.

Two prominent, and apparently globally distributed, δ 13 C excursions have been documented from the Upper Ordovician, namely the early Katian Guttenberg isotope carbon excursion (GICE) and the latest Ordovician Hirnantian isotope carbon excursion (HICE). The former excursion, which has lower δ 13 C values than the HICE, is now recorded from dozens of localities in North America and Baltoscandia, and it appears to be present also in China. In North America the GICE ranges from the uppermost Phragmodus undatus Midcontinent Conodont Zone to near the top of the Plectodina tenuis Midcontinent Conodont Zone, an interval corresponding to the lower part of the Diplacanthograptus caudatus Global Graptolite Zone. The base of the GICE lies somewhat above the Millbrig K-bentonite. In Baltoscandia the GICE occurs in the upper Diplograptus foliaceus through the lower Dicranograptus clingani Graptolite Zones, and in the upper Amorphognathus tvaerensis Conodont Zone. Its base is a few meters above the widespread Kinnekulle K-bentonite. In Baltoscandia and in Oklahoma the GICE ranges through a part of the Spinachitina cervicornis Chitinozoan Zone. In North America the GICE is regionally in a transgressive-regressive succession. The bathymetric conditions in the GICE interval in Baltoscandia were somewhat complex and have been the subject of different interpretations, but there is no obvious correlation between the GICE and apparent sea level changes. A review of the relations between the GICE and potential climatic and water temperature indicators, such as lithofacies, faunas, and 18 O geochemistry, does not suggest a close correlation to specific environmental conditions. The cause of formation of the GICE is enigmatic, but there is no direct evidence that it was coeval with a period of extensive glaciation in the Gondwana. The GICE is a powerful chemostratigraphic tool that is useful for detailed local and even transatlantic correlations.