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We report U-Pb age determinations of carbonate nodules from an in situ paleosol horizon in the Upper Permian Balfour Formation and from several horizons of pedogenic nodule conglomerate (PNC) in the Triassic Katberg Formation, Karoo Basin, South Africa, using laser ablation−inductively coupled plasma−mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The paleosol sample yields an age of 252 ± 3 Ma, which overlaps with a previous high-precision U-Pb zircon date from a volcanic ash deposit 2 m above the paleosol. This relationship demonstrates the reliability of using LA-ICP-MS dating techniques on terrestrial pedogenic calcite. Two PNC samples collected at the base of the Katberg Formation within the same sandstone unit yield ages of 255 ± 3 Ma and 251 ± 3 Ma. The age of 251 ± 3 Ma overlaps with the high-precision U-Pb zircon date below the PNC and is a maximum age estimate of deposition for the base of the Katberg Formation. Our results show that reworked nodules in the same concentrated conglomerate lag can be of different ages, but that similarly aged nodules are spatially associated. In addition, two PNC samples collected higher in the section yield ages of 249 ± 3 Ma and 241 ± 3 Ma, providing maximum depositional ages for the lower to middle Katberg Formation for the first time. We demonstrate that pedogenic carbonate nodules can be dated with meaningful precision, providing another mechanism for constraining the age of sedimentary sequences and studying events associated with the Permian−Triassic transition in the central Karoo Basin, even though the extinction boundary may not be preserved in this area. 

The Whitehorse Group and Quartermaster Formation are extensive red-bed terrestrial sequences representing the final episode of sedimentation in the Palo Duro Basin in north-central Texas, U.S.A. Regionally, these strata record the culmination of a long-term regression sequence beginning in the middle to late Permian. The Whitehorse Group includes beds of abundant laminated to massive red quartz siltstone to fine sandstone and rare dolomite, laminated to massive gypsum, and claystones, as well as diagenetic gypsum. The Quartermaster Formation exhibits a change from nearly equal amounts of thin planar and lenticular fine sandstone and laminated to massive mudstone in its lower half to overlying strata with coarser-grained, cross-bedded sandstones indicative of meandering channels up to 7 m deep and rare overbank mudstones. Paleosols are absent in the Upper Whitehorse Group and only poorly developed in the Quartermaster Formation. Volcanic ash-fall deposits (tuffs) present in uppermost Whitehorse Group and lower Quartermaster Formation strata permit correlation among five stratigraphic sections distributed over ∼150 km and provide geochronologic age information for these rocks. Both the Whitehorse Group and Quartermaster Formation have traditionally been assigned to the late Permian Ochoan (Changhsingian) stage, and workers assumed that the Permian-Triassic boundary is characterized by a regionally significant unconformity. Chemostratigraphic or biostratigraphic evidence for this age assignment, however, have been lacking to date. Single zircon U-Pb CA-TIMS analyses from at least two distinct volcanic ash fall layers in the lower Quartermaster Formation, which were identified and collected from five different localities across the Palo Duro Basin, yield interpreted depositional ages ranging from 252.19 ± 0.30 to 251.74 ± 0.28 Ma. Single zircon U-Pb CA-TIMS analyses of detrital zircons from sandstones located only a few meters beneath the top of the Quartermaster Formation yield a range of dates from Mesoproterozoic (1418 Ma) to Middle Triassic (244.5 Ma; Anisian), the latter of which is interpreted as a maximum depositional age, which is no older than Anisian, thus indicating the Permian-Triassic boundary to lie somewhere within the lower Quartermaster Formation/upper Whitehorse Group succession. Stable carbon isotope data from 180 samples of early-burial dolomicrite cements preserve a chemostratigraphic signal that is similar among sections, with a large ∼−8‰ negative isotope excursion ∼20 m beneath the Whitehorse Group-Quartermaster Formation boundary. This large negative carbon isotope excursion is interpreted to be the same excursion associated with the end-Permian extinction and this is in concert with the new high precision radioisotopic age data presented and the fact that the excursion lies within a normal polarity stratigraphic magnetozone. Dolomite cement δ 13 C values remain less negative (between about −5 and −8 permil) into the lower part of the Quartermaster Formation before becoming more positive toward the top of the section. This long interval of negative δ 13 C values in the Quartermaster Formation is interpreted to represent the earliest Triassic (Induan) inception of biotic and ecosystem “recovery.” Oxygen isotope values of dolomicrite cements show a progressive trend toward more positive values through the boundary interval, suggesting substantially warmer conditions around the end-Permian extinction event and a trend toward cooler conditions after the earliest Triassic. Our observations on these strata show that the paleoenvironment and paleoclimate across the Permian-Triassic boundary in western, sub-equatorial Pangea was characterized by depositional systems that were not conducive to plant preservation. 

Stratigraphic sections in the Bogda Mountains, NW China, provide detailed records of late Permian–Early Triassic terrestrial paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic evolution at the paleo-mid-latitude of NE Pangea. The sections are located in the Tarlong-Taodonggou, Dalongkou, and Zhaobishan areas, ~100 km apart, and ~5000 m in total thickness. An age model was constructed using seven high-resolution U-Pb zircon CA-TIMS dates in the Tarlong-Taodonggou sections and projected to sections in two other areas to convert the litho- and cyclo-stratigraphy into a chronostratigraphy. Sediments were deposited in braided and meandering streams, and lacustrine deltaic and lakeplain-littoral environments. A cyclostratigraphy was established on the basis of repetitive environmental changes for high-order cycles, stacking patterns of high-order cycles, and long-term climatic and tectonic trends for low-order cycles (LC). Sedimentary evidence from the upper Wuchiapingian–mid Induan Wutonggou LC indicates that the climate was generally humid-subhumid and gradually became variable toward a seasonally dry condition in the early Induan. Lush vegetation had persisted across the Permo–Triassic boundary into the early Induan. A subhumid-semiarid condition prevailed during the deposition of mid Induan–lower Olenekian Jiucaiyuan and lower Olenekian Shaofanggou LCs. These three LCs are largely continuous and separated by conformities and diastems. Intra- and inter-graben stratigraphic variability is reflected by variations in thickness, depositional system, and average sedimentation rate, and results in variable spatial and temporal stratigraphic resolution. Such stratigraphic variability is mainly controlled by paleogeographic location, depocenter shift, and episodic uplift and subsidence in the source areas and catchment basin. A changeover of plant communities occurred during the early Induan, postdating the end-Permian marine mass extinction. However, riparian vegetation and upland forests were still present from the mid Induan to early Olenekian, and served as primary food source for terrestrial ecosystems, including vertebrates. Correlation of the vascular plant evolutionary history from the latest Changhsingian to early Induan in the Bogda Mountains with those reported from Australia and south China indicates a diachronous floral changeover on Pangea. The late Permian–Early Triassic litho-, cyclo- and chrono-stratigraphies, constrained by the age model, providesfoundation for future studies on the evolution of continental sedimentary, climatic, biologic, and ecological systems in the Bogda region. It also provides a means to correlate terrestrial events in the mid-paleolatitudes with marine and nonmarine records in the other parts of the world. 

The Colorado Plateau Coring Project Phase 1 (CPCP‐1) acquired three continuous drill cores from Petrified Forest National Park (PFNP), Arizona, U.S.A., two of which (CPCP‐PFNP13‐1A and CPCP‐PFNP13‐2B) intersected the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation, Lower(?)‐Middle Triassic Moenkopi Formation (MF) and Permian Coconino Sandstone. We examined both cores to construct a high‐resolution magnetostratigraphy of MF strata, and progressive demagnetization data yield well‐defined, interpretable paleomagnetic results. Each lithostratigraphic member of the MF (Wupatki, Moqui, and Holbrook members) contains authigenic and detrital hematite as the dominant magnetic carrier with distinguishing rock magnetic characteristics. Magnetostratigraphy of MF strata in both CPCP‐1 cores consists of six normal and six reverse polarity magnetozones, from the youngest to the oldest, MF1n to MF6r. Recent single‐crystal chemical abrasion–thermal ionization mass spectrometry (CA‐TIMS) U‐Pb data from a sample in magnetozone MF1n yield a latest Anisian/earliest Ladinian (241.38 ± 0.43 Ma) age. Correlation of the CA‐TIMS‐calibrated magnetostratigraphy with the astronomically tuned polarity timescale for the Middle Triassic deep‐marine Guandao (GD) section of South China ties the magnetozone MF1n with GD8 and MF6r with GD2r, and implies that the MF spans, at most, the earliest Anisian (Aegean) to latest Anisian (Illyrian)/earliest Ladinian stages (ca. 246.8 to 241.5 Ma). This age estimate for the MF suggests that the timespan of the regional, pre‐Norian disconformity is about 17 Ma, which demonstrates that MF vertebrate fossil assemblages in east‐central Arizona are millions of years (minimally 3–4 Ma) younger than previously suggested and are all Anisian in age, with no indications of substantial hiatuses in the MF section.

 

Building on an earlier study that confirmed the stability of the 405‐kyr eccentricity climate cycle and the timing of the Newark‐Hartford astrochronostratigraphic polarity time scale back to 215 Ma, we extend the magnetochronology of the Late Triassic Chinle Formation to its basal unconformity in scientific drill core PFNP‐1A from Petrified Forest National Park (Arizona, USA). The 335‐m‐thick Chinle section is imprinted with paleomagnetic polarity zones PF1r to PF10n, which we correlate to chrons E17r to E9n (~209 to 224 Ma) of the Newark‐Hartford astrochronostratigraphic polarity time scale. A sediment accumulation rate of ~34 m/Myr can be extended down to ~270 m, close to the base of the Sonsela Member and the base of magnetozone PF5n, which we correlate to chron E14n that onsets at 216.16 Ma. Magnetozones PF5r to PF10n in the underlying 65‐m‐thick section of the mudstone‐dominated Blue Mesa and Mesa Redondo members plausibly correlate to chrons E13r to E9n, indicating a sediment accumulation rate of only ~10 m/Myr. Published high‐precision U‐Pb detrital zircon dates from the lower Chinle tend to be several million years older than the magnetochronological age model. The source of this discrepancy is unclear but may be due to sporadic introduction of juvenile zircons that get recycled. The new magnetochronological constraint on the base of the Sonsela Member brings the apparent timing of the included Adamanian‐Revueltian land vertebrate faunal zone boundary and the Zone II to Zone III palynofloral transition closer to the temporal range of the ~215 Ma Manicouagan impact structure in Canada.