Climatic and tectonic controls on Triassic dryland terminal fluvial system architecture, central North Sea - From Depositional Systems to Sedimentary Successions on the Norwegian Continental Margin - page 42

Central
North Sea

Southern
Permian
Basin

Climate Alps Climate Sediment yield Temperature

dry wet dry wet high low cool warm

(4) (2)

Rhaetian

reef

δ 18 O

87 Sr/ 86 Sr

Norian

Carnian

Ladinian

Anisian

Sp.

Ol.

Sm.

Induan

(3) (1)

0.7082 0.7070 -1 -8

Permian

Playa muds Halite Volcanics

Fluvial sands Anhydrite High palynological recovery

from Skagerrak Formation

Marine carbonates Marine clastics

Fig. 18. Comparative climate and sediment yield proxies for a transect from the central North Sea to the northern margin
of Tethys (Southern Permian Basin stratigraphy after Aigner & Bachmann, 1992, Geluk, 2005; Alpine stratigraphy after
Gianolla et al ., 1998). Climate curves from (1) Stefani et al . (2010); (2) Mutti & Weissert (1995); (3) Kürschner & Herngreen
(2010); (4) Hornung & Aigner (2002). Time scale follows Preto et al . (2010). Ol. - Olenekian, Sm. - Smithian, Sp. - Spathian.
Dark spikes in the central North Sea profile highlight intervals of enhanced palynological recovery (Goldsmith et al ., 1995).
Strontium isotope data from Korte et al . (2003), oxygen isotope data from Korte et al . (2005). Sand-prone fluvial deposition
in the central North Sea broadly corresponds to pluvial episodes which can be traced across the northern Tethyan region
and into the Southern Permian Basin. These episodes appear to have occurred during climatic warming, which may have
weakened trade winds, allowing moist Tethyan air masses to penetrate farther into the European basins and increased
monsoon intensity. Major increases in sediment yield in the Early Triassic may have been a product of devegetation in the
aftermath of the end Permian extinction and in the Carnian as a result of the widespread development of exorheic fluvial
systems. However, for much of the Triassic clastic sediment yield to Tethys was limited by the prevailing aridity and
prevalence of endorheic basins.

across the region. The climate record from marine
and marginal marine successions deposited along
the northern Tethyan margin (Kustatscher et al .,
2010; Preto et al ., 2010; Stefani et al ., 2010) shows
a generally dry background climate punctuated
by wetter periods, with pluvial events occurring
in the Smithian, Anisian, Ladinian and Carnian
(Fig. 18). In particular, the Early-Middle Anisian,
Late Ladinian and Middle Carnian appear to have
been intervals of relatively frequent or sustained

humidification, whilst the Late Anisian-Early
Ladinian and Late Carnian-Norian show long term
aridity (Mutti & Weissert, 1995).
Between the northern Tethyan margin and the
central North Sea, the Southern Permian Basin
region provides an intermediate palaeogeographic
link between the climatic record seen on the north-
ern Tethyan margin (the source of monsoonal
rainfall and general maritime precipitation) and
the central North Sea. The climatic trends observed