Late Palaeozoic evolution of the North Atlantic margin of Pangea
Abstract Eleven palaeogeographic maps, spanning the earliest Carboniferous (Tournaisian) to Late Permian (Kazanian), have been constructed for the northern North Atlantic, based on available onshore and offshore data. Each palaeogeographic map corresponds to an epoch (i.e., 4–17 Ma); there are no reconstructions of the Serpukhovian and Tatarian, and the Kungurian–Ufimian are treated as one. The palaeogeographic reconstructions outline a change in the overall depositional environment of the Barents Sea–North Greenland area from huge humid flood plains in the Early Carboniferous, over shallow warm seas in the mid-Carboniferous to mid-Permian, to cooler and possibly deeper marine environments in the Late Permian. In East Greenland, non-marine conditions occurred during the entire Carboniferous, and following a prolonged, early Permian hiatus, warm-water carbonates were deposited during the Late Permian. The changes reflect large-scale shifts in palaeoclimatic and subsidence patterns related to the northward drift of the area and ongoing rifting in the region.