COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Morphology, Geochemistry and Stable Isotope Compositions of Vertic Paleosols as Indicators of Paleozoic Paleoclimates

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This is a collaborative research between C.I. Mora and S.G. Driese (University of Tennessee; lead institution) and D.E. Fastovsky (University of Rhode Island) to support ongoing research on aspects of Paleozoic paleoclimates that are reflected in vertic-featured paleosols preserved in the central and southern Appalachian sedimentary sequence. The study takes advantage of the wide spatial and temporal distribution and climatic-dependency of these paleosols, as well as their amenability to stable isotopic analysis. Morphology, geochemistry, and stable isotopic compositions of the vertic paleosols form the database of the study. Vertic-featured paleosols are exposed in six states, representing fluvial and marginal-marine environments from the Ordovician through the Permian. Because vertic paleosols are, by comparison with other paleosol type, diagnostic of specific climatic variables such as annual wet/dry cyclicity and subtropical to tropical conditions, these paleosols are ideal subjects for the reconstruction of paleoclimatic variables. Moreover, the common occurrence of pedogenic carbonate permits the estimation of annual rainfall (based upon nodular horizon depth), as well as the opportunity to estimate Paleozoic atmospheric pCO2 and to tests of models of global atmospheric CO2 concentrations throughout most of the Paleozoic Era.