Late Artinskian–Early Kungurian (Early Permian) warming and maximum marine flooding in the East Gondwana interior rift, Timor and Western Australia, and comparisons across East Gondwana

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.11.051Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Interior basins on main rift axis contrasted with marginal-rift splays.

  • Timor lay close to main rift axis in an open-marine shelf-basin setting.

  • Western Australian basins were marginal rifts in restricted shallow-marine settings.

  • Similar patterns of warming and bathymetric change took place in all basins.

  • Similar broad patterns of climate change are recognized across East Gondwana.

Abstract

Substantial new information is presented on upper Artinskian–Kungurian deposits in Timor-Leste and in the Canning, Southern Carnarvon and northern Perth basins of Western Australia. These basins, situated between about 35°S and 55°S palaeolatitude, formed part of the East Gondwana interior rift, a precursor to the rift that 100 my later formed the Indian Ocean in this region. Timor lay near the main axis of the East Gondwana interior rift, whereas the Western Australian basins were marginal splays from the rift axis. The main depocentres developed as a result of faulting that was initiated during the Late Pennsylvanian. Detailed lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic analyses have been made on the newly recognized Bua-bai limestone and the type Cribas Group in Timor, the Noonkanbah Formation in the Canning Basin, the Byro Group in the Merlinleigh Sub-basin of the Southern Carnarvon Basin, and the Carynginia Formation in the northern Perth Basin. In Timor the succession, which is highly disrupted by faulting, was deposited under open-marine conditions probably in a shelf–basin setting. Restricted, very shallow-water seas flooded the Canning Basin and the Merlinleigh–Byro–Irwin sub-basins of the Southern Carnarvon and northern Perth basins and had highly variable oxygen levels and salinities typical of estuarine environments.

A similar pattern of warming and bathymetric change is recognized in all studied basins. During the early part of the late Artinskian cool conditions prevailed, with water temperatures 0–4 °C forming sea ice in the Merlinleigh–Byro–Irwin rift. Rapid warming during the latter part of the late Artinskian was accompanied by maximum marine flooding close to the Artinskian–Kungurian boundary. Climatic and bathymetric conditions then allowed carbonate mounds, with larger fusulines and a variety of algae, to develop in the northern part of the rift system, and Tubiphytes, conodonts, and brachiopods with Tethyan affinities to migrate into the marginal-rift basins despite the generally adverse water quality at these depositional sites.

Comparison between the stratigraphic record from the East Gondwana interior rift and coeval records from Lhasa and Sibumasu indicate a similar pattern of climate change during the Carboniferous to end Cisuralian. Similar trends probably are present in Eastern Australia although there is confusion over the correlation of some units.

Introduction

Phanerozoic rift basins through the interiors of ancient continents provide outstanding archives of past life and the environmental factors that influenced these records. Among the most important factors affecting the water quality and sedimentation patterns in the seas flooding these rifts were temperature and degrees of aridity and humidity in the hinterland. These factors, which interacted with eustasy and tectonic subsidence, determined the amount of precipitation, freshwater runoff and siliciclastic-sediment influx into the interior seas, turbidity, evaporation from surface waters, salinities and water stratification, and ultimately the biota.

The Early Permian (Cisuralian) was an interval of significant climate change (Schmitz and Davydov, 2012) and in east Gondwana includes evidence for melting of large continental ice sheets (Crowell and Frakes, 1971a, Crowell and Frakes, 1971b, Isbell et al., 2003, Frank et al., 2015). An almost complete stratigraphic record of this interval exists in basins that formed along the East Gondwana interior rift (Fig. 1; Harrowfield et al., 2005), originally called the “Westralian Geosyncline” by Teichert (1939) and the “Western Australian Trough” by Wopfner (1999). This interior Gondwanan record is accessible along the western passive margin of the Australian continent that resulted from much later (Middle Jurassic–Early Cretaceous) episodes of rifting leading to the opening of the Indian Ocean (Heine and Müller, 2005). The margin and its precursor Gondwanan deposits were later modified in the north by late Miocene collision with Asia (Keep and Haig, 2010, Haig, 2012).

The most accessible Cisuralian records from the East Gondwana interior rift include outcrops in Timor (Charlton et al., 2002) and in the Canning, Southern Carnarvon and northern Perth basins of Western Australia (Fig. 2; Mory, 2010, Hocking et al., 1987, Playford et al., 1976). The Timor sections have been dislocated during the chaotic late Miocene collision (Hamilton, 1979) but contain facies that accumulated in more open parts of the rift system closer to its main axis and also closer to the Paleotethys Ocean than the other basins. The Western Australian basins to the south of Timor were marginal splays off the main rift (Fig. 2) and have undergone very little deformation. Permian deposits closer to the edge of the present-day passive margin (and presumably also closer to the main axis of the Permian rift) are covered by thick Mesozoic and Cenozoic strata and are rarely reached in petroleum exploration drilling. Recent seismic profiling on the North West Shelf of Western Australia suggests significant topographic relief developed in the rift system with steep slopes and possible reef or mound development on shelf breaks (MacNeill and Marshall, 2015). Although rock records from these environments are presently out of reach, equivalent facies seem to be represented in Timor where the Permian strata were folded, faulted and uplifted on to land during the late Neogene collision.

Although the Cisuralian climate record in parts of the East Gondwana interior rift has long been subject of discussion (e.g. Maitland, 1912, Clapp, 1925, David and Sussmilch, 1931, David and Sussmilch, 1933, Teichert, 1941, Teichert, 1948, de Clarke et al., 1951, Guppy et al., 1958, Lowenstam, 1964, Condon, 1967, Crowe and Towner, 1976a, Crowe and Towner, 1976b, Dickins, 1978, Dickins, 1993, Dickins, 1996, Forman and Wales, 1981, Hocking et al., 1987, Redfern, 1991, Kennard et al., 1994, Archbold and Shi, 1995, Archbold and Shi, 1996, Lindsay, 1997, Archbold, 1998a, Archbold, 1998b, Archbold, 2000, Nicoll and Metcalfe, 1998, Eyles and Eyles, 2000, Eyles et al., 2001, Eyles et al., 2002, Eyles et al., 2003, Eyles et al., 2006, Dixon and Haig, 2004, Lever, 2004a, Lever, 2004b, Torsvik and Cocks, 2004, Gorter et al., 2008, Korte et al., 2008, Mory et al., 2008, Frank et al., 2012, Al-Hinaai and Redfern, 2015, Taboada et al., 2015), few studies have attempted to examine in detail the influence of climate along a north to south transect in the rift. Recent such analyses by us have suggested the following: (1) a global warm spike during the latest Gzhelian (latest Carboniferous) may have initiated rapid melting of ice sheets that resulted in the deposition of thick glacially-influenced successions of the lowest Permian in the Perth, Southern Carnarvon and Canning basins and reefs in Timor (Davydov et al., 2013, Davydov et al., 2014); and (2) widespread carbonate marine deposition took place during the late Sakmarian to early Artinskian, extending from Timor in the north to the northern Perth Basin in the south, indicating further warming of climate from the earlier glacial phase but suggesting only a very gradual gradient in north–south temperature along the examined length of the rift (Haig et al., 2014).

In the present paper, based on new data and a review of published information, we investigate the late Artinskian to Kungurian interval represented in marine strata of the interior rift and suggest warming from initial cold conditions to a warm peak close to the Artinskian–Kungurian boundary. We show that this was co-incident with Early Permian maximum marine flooding in the rift basins, and led to warm–temperate conditions during the rest of the Permian in lowland parts of East Gondwana. The results of the study raise questions concerning: (1) relationships between climatic changes, marine flooding in the rift basins, and tectonic subsidence; and (2) relationships between climatic changes and different rates of biotic change among different plant and animal groups.

Section snippets

Material and methods

The new material for this study (see Section 7. Appendix 1) was collected during extensive fieldwork in Timor-Leste and in the Canning, Southern Carnarvon and Perth basins. Borehole sections in the Western Australian basins were also examined. Friable mudstones were disaggregated for skeletal microfossil content, and some were digested in HF for palynomorphs, using standard techniques. Carbonate rocks were slabbed, etched in 2% HCl for 4 min, flooded with acetone when dry and overlain by acetate

Timor Gondwanan Megasequence

Within the geological chaos of Timor, a suite of uppermost Carboniferous to Middle Jurassic sedimentary units is recognized as having Gondwana affinity and is designated the “Gondwana Megasequence” (Harris et al., 1998, Harris et al., 2000, Haig et al., 2007, Haig and Bandini, 2013, Tate et al., 2015). This was deposited near the axis of the East Gondwana interior rift adjacent the Bonaparte Basin of northwest Australia as indicated, for example, by the palaeomagnetic evidence of Chamalaun

Comparison of East Gondwana palaeoclimate trends

Mississippian to Cisuralian climate records for the East Gondwana interior rift, Lhasa and Sibumasu (Fig. 26; Section 7, Appendix 24) show similar patterns that support the Early Permian reconstruction of East Gondwana shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 26. In each region, the Mississippian is represented by warm-water facies, a major depositional hiatus is present through much of the Pennsylvanian and this is followed by lowest Permian units containing diamictites and dropstones. Warming took place during

Discussion

The opening of the Indian Ocean to form the present-day western continental margin of Australia was by progressive north to south rifting that took place during an interval of 50 my from about 190 Ma (Early Jurassic) in New Guinea, 165 Ma in the Timor region, 155 Ma between Timor and Exmouth Plateau, and 135 Ma south of Exmouth Plateau (Pigram and Panggabean, 1984, Heine and Müller, 2005, Haig and Bandini, 2013). Metcalfe (2006) suggested that Lhasa rifted from Greater India during the Late

Conclusions

  • 1.

    Marine upper Artinskian–Kungurian deposits are recognized both in basins close to the axis of the East Gondwana interior rift and in marginal rift basins that splayed from the main rift axis. The major depocentres are in rifts that were initiated during the late Pennsylvanian. Northern basins along the main axis of the rift system have a fully marine upper Artinskian–Kungurian succession, whereas coeval deposits further south in the southern Perth Basin are entirely fluvial.

  • 2.

    In the northern part

List of appendices

Data on which this paper is founded are recorded in the following appendices presented in the Supplementary material attached to the article.

Appendix 1 Studied material and localities.

Appendix 2 Distribution of biogenic grain types found in studied samples of the Bua-bai limestone, Timor-Leste.

Appendix 3 Distribution of Foraminifera found in studied samples of the Bua-bai limestone, Timor-Leste.

Appendix 4 Distribution of Bryozoa found in studied samples of the Bau-bai limestone at the type

References (177)

  • V.I. Davydov et al.

    A latest Carboniferous warming spike recorded by a fusulinid-rich bioherm in Timor Leste: implications for East Gondwana deglaciation

    Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

    (2013)
  • J.M. Dickins

    Climate of the Permian in Australia: the invertebrate faunas

    Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

    (1978)
  • J.M. Dickins

    Problems of a late Palaeozoic glaciation in Australia and subsequent climate in the Permian

    Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

    (1996)
  • N. Eyles et al.

    Carboniferous–Permian palynostratigraphy of west Australian marine rift basins: resolving tectonic and eustatic controls during Gondwanan glaciations

    Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

    (2002)
  • C.H. Eyles et al.

    Carboniferous–Permian facies and tectono-stratigraphic succession of the glacially influenced and rifted Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia

    Sediment. Geol.

    (2003)
  • T.D. Frank et al.

    Acme and demise of the late Palaeozoic ice age: a view from the southeastern margin of Gondwana

    Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

    (2015)
  • D.W. Haig

    Palaeobathymetric zonation of foraminifera from lower Permian shale deposits of a high-latitude southern interior sea

    Mar. Micropaleontol.

    (2003)
  • D.W. Haig

    Palaeobathymetric gradients across Timor during 5.7–3.3 Ma (latest Miocene–Pliocene) and implications for collision uplift

    Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

    (2012)
  • D.W. Haig et al.

    Middle Jurassic Radiolaria from a siliceous argillite block in a structural melange zone near Viqueque, Timor Leste: paleogeographic implications

    J. Asian Earth Sci.

    (2013)
  • D.W. Haig et al.

    Postglacial Early Permian (late Sakmarian–early Artinskian) shallow-marine carbonate deposition along a 2000 km transect from Timor to west Australia

    Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

    (2014)
  • R. Harris et al.

    Thermal history of Australian passive margin cover sequences accreted to Timor during Late Neogene arc-continent collision, Indonesia

    J. Asian Earth Sci.

    (2000)
  • C.M. Henderson et al.

    Geographical clines in Permian and lower Triassic gondolellids and its role in taxonomy

    Palaeoworld

    (2007)
  • M. Keep et al.

    Deformation and exhumation in Timor: distinct stages of a young orogeny

    Tectonophysics

    (2010)
  • C. Korte et al.

    Oxygen isotope values from high-latitudes: clues for Permian sea-surface temperature gradients and Late Palaeozoic deglaciation

    Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

    (2008)
  • L. Langhi et al.

    Influence of the Neotethys rifting on the development of the Dampier Sub-basin (North West Shelf of Australia), highlighted by subsidence modelling

    Tectonophysics

    (2005)
  • N.W. Archbold

    Correlations of the Western Australian Permian and Permian ocean circulation patterns

    Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria

    (1998)
  • N.W. Archbold

    Marine biostratigraphy and correlation of the west Australian Permian basins

  • N.W. Archbold

    Palaeobiogeography of the Australasian Permian

    Assoc. Australas. Paleontol. Mem.

    (2000)
  • N.W. Archbold et al.

    Western Pacific Permian marine invertebrate palaeobiogeography

    Aust. J. Earth Sci.

    (1996)
  • M.G. Audley-Charles

    The geology of Portuguese Timor

    Geol. Soc. Lond. Mem.

    (1968)
  • J. Backhouse

    Palynology and correlation of Permian sediments in the Perth, Collie, and Officer Basins, Western Australia

  • M.S. Boiko et al.

    Phylogeny of the Permian family Metalegoceratidae (Goniatitida, Ammonoidea)

    Paleontol. J.

    (2008)
  • P.F. Carr et al.

    Australian Mineral.

    (1989)
  • F.G. Clapp

    A few observations on the geology and geography of the Northwest and Desert Basins, Western Australia

    Proc. Linnean Soc. NSW

    (1925)
  • M.A. Condon

    The geology of the Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. Part 2: Permian stratigraphy

  • I. Crespin

    Permian Foraminifera of Australia

  • J. Crockford

    Permian Bryozoa from the Fitzroy Basin, Western Australia

  • R.W.A. Crowe et al.

    Environmental interpretation of the Permian Nura Nura Member of the Poole Sandstone, Noonkanbah sheet area, Canning Basin: a gradation between fluviatile and shallow water marine facies

  • R.W.A. Crowe et al.

    Permian depositional history of the Noonkanbah 1:250,000 sheet area

    Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics

    (1976)
  • J.C. Crowell et al.

    Late Paleozoic glaciation: part IV, Australia

    Geol. Soc. Am. Bull.

    (1971)
  • J.C. Crowell et al.

    Late Palaeozoic glaciation of Australia

    J. Geol. Soc. Aust.

    (1971)
  • S.E. Damborenea et al.

    Southern Hemisphere Palaeobiogeography of Triassic–Jurassic Marine Bivalves

    (2013)
  • T.W.E. David et al.

    Upper Paleozoic glaciations of Australia

    Bull. Geol. Soc. Am.

    (1931)
  • T.W.E. David et al.

    The carboniferous and Permian periods in Australia

  • V.I. Davydov et al.

    Latest Carboniferous (Late Gzhelian) fusulinids from Timor Leste and their paleobiogeographic affinities

    J. Paleontol.

    (2014)
  • E. de Clarke et al.

    Permian succession and structure in the northern part of the Irwin Basin, Western Australia

    J. R. Soc. West. Aust.

    (1951)
  • L. Dent

    Facies analysis of Lower Permian strata, Canning Basin, Western Australia and implications for CO2 sequestration

  • J.M. Dickins

    Palaeoclimate

    Bull. Geol. Surv. W. Aust.

    (1993)
  • J.-C. Dionne

    Sediment load of shore ice and ice rafting potential, upper St. Lawrence Estuary, Québec, Canada

    J. Coast. Res.

    (1993)
  • M. Dixon et al.

    Foraminifera and their habitats within a cool-water carbonate succession following glaciation, Early Permian (Sakmarian), Western Australia

    J. Foraminifer. Res.

    (2004)
  • Cited by (46)

    • Methane seeps following Early Permian (Sakmarian) deglaciation, interior East Gondwana, Western Australia: Multiphase carbonate cements, distinct carbon-isotope signatures, extraordinary biota

      2022, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
      Citation Excerpt :

      Similar cyclicity can be detected even in thick mudstone successions (Haig, 2003). Within the mudstone units of the parasequences, carbonate nodules, composed of mud cemented by cryptocrystalline carbonate minerals, are commonly concentrated in layers that represent maximum marine-flooding levels within each depositional cycle (Haig et al., 2017). The nodules are usually fossiliferous, containing bryozoans, brachiopods, and crinoids.

    • Upper Triassic carbonate-platform facies, Timor-Leste: Foraminiferal indices and regional tectonostratigraphic association

      2021, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
      Citation Excerpt :

      Shallow-water carbonate facies were present in the late Gzhelian (latest Carboniferous, around 300 Ma; Davydov et al., 2013, 2014), late Sakmarian–early Artinskian (Cisuralian, Early Permian, around 290 Ma; Haig et al., 2014), late Artinskian–early Kungurian (Cisuralian, Early Permian, around 283 Ma; Haig et al., 2017), late Wordian–Capitanian (Guadalupian, Middle Permian, around 265 Ma; see Haig et al., 2017, their Table 2), and within the Wuchiapingian, possibly extending through Changhsingian (Lopingian, around 256 Ma, possibly extending to 252 Ma; work in progress). The Permian limestone units seem to represent bryozoan-crinoidal mounds of varying lateral extent and are conformable with underlying and overlying volcanic and siliciclastic strata (Davydov et al., 2013; Haig et al., 2014, 2017). These deposits fit, probably at maximum marine flooding levels, in each of the depositional sequences, Pseq1–Pseq5, recognized by Haig et al. (2018) in the west Australian basins to the south.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text