Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


osu1245178129.pdf (15.15 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Application of Integrated High-Resolution Biochemostratigraphy to Paleozoic Chronostratigraphic Correlation: Recalibrating the Silurian System

Cramer, Bradley D.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1245178129

Abstract Details

2009, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Geological Sciences.
The stratigraphic record preserves a library of global climate change that allows us to use the past as the key to the present by studying prior examples of the multiple climate states of our planet’s history. The cause and affect relationships within the global climate system as well as the triggers and eventual consequences of prior examples of global environmental change are all preserved in the rock record. This global library is well-utilized for records from the recent past but there is diminishing attendance as one moves to the parts of the library containing older and older global environmental records. This is largely due to the difficulty in obtaining, reading, interpreting, and correlating global environmental records from the distant past. The work presented here is from the Silurian Period, including an interval from roughly 440 to 423Ma (Millions of years ago), and demonstrates that it is possible to produce a timescale for an interval hundreds of millions of years ago that nearly matches the resolution of more recent time periods. By producing a Phanerozoic timescale of equal resolution and fidelity throughout, over 500 million years of global environmental history can be brought to bear on our understanding of the modern climate system. Such a goal is decades away however, but this dissertation has begun to show that, at least for some portions of the Silurian, global chronostratigraphic correlation on the order of thousands of years (kyr) is achievable. The integration of high-resolution (often cm-scale) carbonate carbon isotope chemostratigraphy with high-resolution biostratigraphy of conodonts and graptolites as a chronostratigraphic tool, ‘biochemostratigraphy’, is documented in detail throughout this work which is presented in three parts. The document is divided into sections dealing with the chronostratigraphic potential, the practical application, and the chronostratigraphic consequences of integrated high-resolution biochemostratigraphy. Biochemostratigraphic data from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, New York, Nevada, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Estonia, and Latvia are presented including an interval from the Aeronian Stage of the Llandovery Series to the Homerian Stage of the Wenlock Series. New chronostratigraphic charts for the Silurian are provided including the first portion of an orbitally-tuned Silurian timescale as well as potential revisions to Silurian lithostratigraphic terms in use in the American Midcontinent.
Matthew Saltzman, PhD (Advisor)
William Ausich, PhD (Committee Member)
Loren Babcock, PhD (Committee Member)
Douglas Pride, PhD (Committee Member)
286 p.
Earth; Geology; Oceanography; Paleontology
Silurian; carbon isotope; conodont; graptolite; chronostratigraphy; correlation; Baltic; North America

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Cramer, B. D. (2009). Application of Integrated High-Resolution Biochemostratigraphy to Paleozoic Chronostratigraphic Correlation: Recalibrating the Silurian System [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1245178129

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Cramer, Bradley. Application of Integrated High-Resolution Biochemostratigraphy to Paleozoic Chronostratigraphic Correlation: Recalibrating the Silurian System. 2009. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1245178129.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Cramer, Bradley. "Application of Integrated High-Resolution Biochemostratigraphy to Paleozoic Chronostratigraphic Correlation: Recalibrating the Silurian System." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1245178129

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1245178129
460
© 2009, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.