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Cold Climate in the Eastern Australian Mid to Lade Permian may Reflect Cold Upwelling Waters

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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A suite of ice-rafted dropstones and glendonites throughout the Permian succession of eastern Australia has led many researchers to suggest that the late Paleozoic glaciation terminated diachronously in this part of Gondwana. Paradoxically, these cold climate indicators are preserved in transgressive and highstand facies and formed at mid to high latitudes at a time when paleofloral data suggest temperate conditions at the pole. These apparent inconsistencies suggest that rather than recording the development of glacial conditions in eastern Gondwana, these features indicate localized cooling. A lack of glacial facies in the sedimentary basins and equable onshore climates indicated by abundant coal measures suggest that cooling of this part of the Gondwanan coast must have been driven by offshore processes. Upwelling of cold abyssal waters is one process by which this may have occurred. Coupled atmosphere-ocean models for the Permian indicate that onshore breezes and Ekman (geostrophic) currents may have resulted in upwelling along this section of the Gondwanan coast. This hypothesis is supported by the high productivity Eurydesma fauna that characterizes the strata, the relatively high total organic carbon content of the offshore mudrocks, and elevated phosphate concentrations within some horizons, which together display a similarity with modern upwelling zones. For the first time, this new hypothesis reconciles the prolonged deposition of cold-climate indicators in the eastern Australian Permian with a synchronous collapse of the late Paleozoic glaciation in the mid-Sakmarian.

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Field Value
Title Cold Climate in the Eastern Australian Mid to Lade Permian may Reflect Cold Upwelling Waters
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/055541dc-c914-4f3e-8b79-8b841f3a5cd1
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        50.0,
        -70.0
      ],
      [
        180.0,
        -70.0
      ],
      [
        180.0,
        6.0
      ],
      [
        50.0,
        6.0
      ],
      [
        50.0,
        -70.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Cold Climate in the Eastern Australian Mid to Lade Permian may Reflect Cold Upwelling Waters". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/cold-climate-in-the-eastern-australian-mid-to-lade-permian-may-reflect-cold-upwelling-waters