Christopher R. Fielding

• PhD University of Durham 1982
• Professor (Full) at University of Connecticut

The end-Permian event (EPE, ca. 252.3−251.9 Ma) led to the generalized collapse of gymnosperm-supported ecosystems. They eventually recovered despite Early Triassic suppression and became globally dominant for most of the Mesozoic. Understanding the sequence and timing of gymnosperm reestablishment at different latitudes is therefore key to explain...

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Point bars are emblematic deposits of meandering rivers. Classical facies models that define their architecture and sedimentology are essentially based on rivers with low to moderate peak discharge variability. However, many global rivers experience high peak discharge variability, which may significantly impact point‐bar sedimentological features....

Fluvial facies models based on river planform are flawed and not fully fit for purpose. An alternative approach to classifying fluvial deposits is based on river discharge characteristics. A recent paper showed that the co-efficient of variance of annual peak discharge (CVQp) correlates well with the characteristics of preserved alluvium for a suit...

The end-Permian event (EPE, c. 252 Ma) led to the collapse of continental ecosystems and to the extinction of the peat-forming Glossopteridales across southern Gondwana. The Sydney Basin in southeastern Australia (then at 60–65°S) hosts a rich Permian to Triassic continental plant record, providing a clear window into this collapse and subsequent r...

This field trip examines the Carboniferous-Permian strata of the Shuiyuguan section in the vicinity of Taiyuan City, and the Palougou section along the Yellow River as the main investigation subjects, and the trip also includes visits to the Antaibao Open Pit Coal Mine at Pingshuo and the Yungang Buddhist Grottoes at Datong City. The aim of this fi...

Bend cutoff is a fundamental process shaping meandering rivers. Despite the widely accepted differentiation between neck and chute cutoffs, a significant knowledge gap persists regarding the factors responsible for the occurrence of each cutoff regime and the specific conditions triggering the regime. Here, we used field and photogrammetric data de...

The transition from the middle to late Permian (Guadalupian–Lopingian) is claimed to record one or more extinction events that rival the ‘Big Five’ in terms of depletion of biological diversity and reorganization of ecosystem structure. Yet many questions remain as to whether the events recorded in separate regions were synchronous, causally relate...

The Sydney Basin in southeastern Australia provides a valuable record of the recovery of subpolar (c. 60–65°S) continental ecosystems after the end-Permian extinction event (c. 252 Ma). Stable carbon isotopes (δ13C) facilitated correlation to global carbon cycle changes across a cooling event known as the Smithian–Spathian event (SSE; c. 249.2 Ma)....

As an alternative to using fluvial planform as the primary basis for classifying alluvial channel deposits, Fielding and others (2018, Sedimentary Geology 365, 1-20) proposed a classification based on a measure of interannual discharge variability. A suite of modern rivers for which both long-term discharge records and subsurface stratigraphic data...

The latest Permian mass extinction (LPME) was triggered bymagmatism of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province (STLIP), which left an extensive record of sedimentary Hg anomalies at Northern Hemisphere and tropical sites. Here, we present Hg records from terrestrial sites in southern Pangea, nearly antipodal to contemporaneous STLIP activity, pro...

A timeframe of glacial and nonglacial intervals in the Carboniferous and Permian systems of eastern Australia was published by Fielding et al. (2008a). In this scheme, eight discrete intervals (four in the Carboniferous: C1-C4, and four in the Permian: P1-P4) in which indicators of glacial activity and cold climate were preserved alternated with in...

Brine formed through the cryogenic concentration of seawater remains one of the least understood components of Earth's cryosphere. Cryogenic brine is a prominent feature of the McMurdo region of Antarctica, where it has been documented below the Taylor Glacier, in numerous ice-covered lakes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, and in an extensive, seaward-f...

Throughout Earth history, large volcanic eruptions that inject sulfur-bearing gases are believed to have imparted strong forcings on global climates and ecosystems. Sulfur outgassing by the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province (STLIP) is hypothesized to have catalyzed environmental catastrophe associated with the end-Permian extinction (EPE). Howe...

Supplementary palynological data files for upper Permian strata of GSQ Emerald NS7 and GSQ Springsure 19 wells, Bowen Basin, Queensland, Australia.

The upper part of the upper Permian succession in the Bowen Basin of Queensland, NE Australia, was investigated to ascertain the timeline and character of environmental changes in this high southern palaeolatitudinal setting leading up to the End-Permian Extinction (EPE). The study focused on (in ascending order) the Peawaddy Formation, Black Alley...

The deposits of large rivers have been of interest to geologists for some time, although studies of the ancient have perhaps suffered from a lack of substantial data on which to base interpretations. This chapter draws comparisons between big river systems in the modern and those from the ancient, in terms of external geometry and dimensions, inter...

The last major episode of cordilleran‐style tectonism in eastern Australia was the late Paleozoic‐early Mesozoic Gondwanide Orogeny. When exactly this deformation commenced and what caused this phase of orogenesis is still debated. Using previous stratigraphic and sedimentological data from pre‐orogenic to syn‐orogenic strata, integrated with new d...

Harmful algal and bacterial blooms linked to deforestation, soil loss and global warming are increasingly frequent in lakes and rivers. We demonstrate that climate changes and deforestation can drive recurrent microbial blooms, inhibiting the recovery of freshwater ecosystems for hundreds of millennia. From the stratigraphic successions of the Sydn...

Rapid climate change was a major contributor to the end-Permian extinction (EPE). Although well constrained for the marine realm, relatively few records document the pace, nature, and magnitude of climate change across the EPE in terrestrial environments. We generated proxy records for chemical weathering and land surface temperature from continent...

A poorly understood Mississippian to basal Pennsylvanian succession is preserved in parts of northern Utah, western USA. The mudrock- and carbonate-dominated Manning Canyon Formation and lateral equivalents have been referred to as “cyclothems” and might therefore be expected to preserve a record of repeated, late Paleozoic sea-level excursions sim...

The term “cyclothem” was coined by Wanless and Weller (1932) to characterize a repetitive stratigraphic motif in the Pennsylvanian succession of the Illinois Basin, central USA, and it subsequently became popular among geologists as a general term for similarly repetitive successions worldwide. Although use of the term has become somewhat indiscrim...

To study the stratal stacking patterns and controls on coal accumulation in a lowland alluvial plain, coastal plain, and shallow-marine setting, the depositional facies, sequence stratigraphy, and paleogeography of the Carboniferous–Permian strata in the Anyang-Hebi (Anhe) coalfield, Henan Province, northern China were analyzed based on borehole co...

The newly defined Frazer Beach Member of the Moon Island Beach Formation is identified widely across the Sydney Basin in both outcrop and exploration wells. This thin unit was deposited immediately after extinction of the Glossopteris flora (defining the terrestrial end-Permian extinction event). The unit rests conformably on the uppermost Permian...

In the Rocky Mountain region of the western United States, upper Mississippian and Pennsylvanian stratigraphy in central Montana and northern Utah preserve a poorly documented, paleotropical stratigraphic record that spans the Carboniferous interval of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA). Sedimentologic and stratigraphic investigation of the Otter Fo...

Upper Permian to Lower Triassic coastal plain successions of the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia have been investigated in outcrop and continuous drillcores. The purpose of the investigation is to provide an assessment of palaeoenvironmental change at high southern palaeolatitudes in a continental margin context for the late Permian (Lopingian),...

Most sequence stratigraphic models are based on the premise that relative changes in sea level (RSL) control stacking patterns in continental-margin settings. An alternative hypothesis, however, is that upstream factors, notably variations in relative water discharge (RQW) or the ratio of water to sediment discharge can influence or control stratal...

A distinctive burrow form, Reniformichnus australis n. isp., is described from strata immediately overlying and transecting the end-Permian extinction (EPE) horizon in the Sydney Basin, eastern Australia. Although a unique excavator cannot be identified, these burrows were probably produced by small cynodonts based on comparisons with burrows elsew...

Upper Permian to Lower Triassic coastal plain successions of the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia have been investigated in outcrop and continuous drillcores. The purpose of the investigation is to provide an assessment of palaeoenvironmental change at high southern palaeolatitudes in a continental margin context for the late Permian (Lopingian),...

To study the possible role of base-level oscillations in the formation of thick coal seams in coastal plain (paralic) environments, the Early Permian Shanxi Formation No.21 thick coal seam was investigated in 3 cores spanning a distance of 29 km in the Anhe (Anyang-Hebi) coalfield, Henan Province using sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy, and coal...

yeUncertainty persists over whether repetitive stratal rhythms in the Pennsylvanian of Euramerica (so-called “cyclothems”) were externally forced, in all likelihood by waxing and waning of glacial ice centers on Gondwana, or were controlled by autogenic processes. A key to resolving this dispute is the lateral extent of the individual cyclothems, w...

Discharge event frequency, magnitude and duration all control river channel morphology and sedimentary architecture. Uncertainty persists as to whether alluvial deposits in the rock record are a time‐averaged amalgam from all discharge events, or a biased record of larger events. This paper investigates the controls on channel deposit character and...

Sequence boundaries are commonly attributed to relative sea-level (RSL) fall, and this is certainly a common mechanism for producing the associated erosional unconformity. Here we present new field, experimental, and theoretical findings on the most commonly proposed alternative mechanism: generation of a widespread erosional unconformity through a...

Unit bars are relatively large bedforms that develop in rivers over a wide range of climatic regimes. Unit bars formed within the highly‐variable discharge Burdekin River in Queensland, Australia, were examined over three field campaigns between 2015 and 2017. These bars had complex internal structures, dominated by co‐sets of cross‐stratified and...

Current large-scale deforestation poses a threat to ecosystems globally, and imposes substantial and prolonged changes on the hydrological and carbon cycles. The tropical forests of the Amazon and Indonesia are currently undergoing deforestation with catastrophic ecological consequences but widespread deforestation events have occurred several time...

The collapse of late Permian (Lopingian) Gondwanan floras, characterized by the extinction of glossopterid gymnosperms, heralded the end of one of the most enduring and extensive biomes in Earth’s history. The Sydney Basin, Australia, hosts a nearcontinuous, age-constrained succession of high southern paleolatitude (∼65–75°S) terrestrial strata spa...

The collapse of late Permian (Lopingian) Gondwanan floras, characterized by the extinction of glossopterid gymnosperms, heralded the end of one of the most enduring and extensive biomes in Earth’s history. The Sydney Basin, Australia, hosts a near continuous, age-constrained succession of high southern paleolatitude (∼65–75°S) terrestrial strata sp...

Inorganic aragonite occurs in a wide spectrum of depositional environments and its precipitation is controlled by complex physio‐chemical factors. This study investigates diagenetic conditions that led to aragonite cement precipitation in Cenozoic glaciomarine deposits of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. A total of 42 sandstones that host intergranular c...

Briny groundwater is present below the extremely cold and dry surface of the McMurdo Dry Valleys and below the seafloor of the adjacent McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. The lack of reliable groundwater samples in the region, however, has long limited understanding of its origin, nature, and spatial distribution. In this regard, intergranular carbonate...

In the Big Snowy Mountains of central Montana, USA, late Visean to Bashkirian strata preserve a nearly complete, but poorly documented, paleotropical stratigraphic succession that straddles the range of current estimates of the onset of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA). Sedimentologic and stratigraphic investigation of the Otter (late Visean to Se...

Multiple phases of extension and contraction in orogens can produce relatively complicated thermal histories for sedimentary basins as recorded by thermochronological datasets. This makes it difficult to determine which tectonic events had the most impact on the thermal state, and were drivers of exhumation, of the upper crust. In this study, apati...

Palaeogeographic evolution of the Sydney-Gunnedah-Bowen basin system in eastern Australia

The Drummond Basin of central Queensland preserves a large-volume succession of little studied, predominantly fluviatile, coarse-grained sedimentary rocks of mid-Mississippian age. The stratigraphy of the basin has been subdivided into three sedimentary cycles. The Cycle 1/Cycle 2 boundary records a distinct, but poorly understood change in provena...

Past studies of the end-Permian extinction (EPE), the largest biotic crisis of the Phanerozoic, have not resolved the timing of events in southern high-latitudes. Here we use palynology coupled with high-precision CA-ID-TIMS dating of euhedral zircons from continental sequences of the Sydney Basin, Australia, to show that the collapse of the austra...

The period since the 1960s witnessed significant progress in our ability to decipher the clastic rock record from a wide range of sedimentary environments, and spanning many spatio-temporal scales, from millimetric to that of the sedimentary basin, and involving processes acting on timescales of seconds to millions of years. This review assesses ad...

The term “cyclothem” was coined by Wanless & Weller (1932) to describe repetitive stratigraphic successions of Carboniferous age in Illinois. Nonetheless, comparable rhythmicity had been identified in Carboniferous rocks both in the central and eastern USA, and in Europe during the preceding century. Cyclothems were found to comprise repetitive ver...

Pervasive ¹⁸O-depleted carbonate cements in sediment cores acquired by the Cape Roberts Project (CRP) in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, were previously attributed to mixing of glacial meltwater and seawater in the subsurface. However, a more recent discovery of ¹⁸O-depleted, connate brine formed by seawater freezing in a nearby sediment core (AND-2A co...

The lowest 501 m (~1139-638 m) of the AND-2A core from southern Mc- Murdo Sound is the most detailed and complete record of early Miocene sediments in Antarctica and indicates substantial variability in Antarctic ice sheet activity during early Miocene time. There are two main pulses of diamictite accumulation recorded in the core, and three signif...

Delta fronts are often characterized by high rates of sediment supply that result in unstable slopes and a wide variety of soft‐sediment deformation, including the formation of overpressured and mobile muds that may flow plastically during early burial, potentially forming mud diapirs. The coastal cliffs of County Clare, western Ireland, expose Pen...

The isotopic analyses (δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O, and Δ47) of carbonate phases recovered from a core in McMurdo Sound by ANtarctic geologic DRILLing (ANDRILL-2A) indicate that the majority of secondary carbonate mineral formation occurred at cooler temperatures than the modern burial temperature, and in the presence of fluids with δ¹⁸Owater values ranging between...

The Drummond Basin of central Queensland preserves a large-volume succession of little studied, predominantly fluviatile, coarse-grained, cratonic-derived sedimentary rocks of mid-Mississippian age. Termed Cycle 2, this succession separates mostly volcanic-related (Cycle 1 and 3) successions. The Cycle 1-2 boundary records a distinct, but poorly un...

Extant, planform-based facies models for alluvial deposits are not fully fit for purpose, because they over-emphasise plan form whereas there is little in the alluvial rock record that is distinctive of any particular planform, and because the planform of individual rivers vary in both time and space. Accordingly, existing facies models have limite...

Tectonic forcing of delta progradation is increasingly being invoked to explain stratal stacking patterns in foreland basins. Nonetheless, the recognition of different types of tectonic forcing and their consequences for the spatial and temporal distribution of accommodation often rely on incomplete datasets and indirect sequence stratigraphic crit...

The Victoria Land Basin forms part of the failed West Antarctic Rift, and preserves a Cenozoic succession up to 4 km thick that records the onset of Cenozoic glaciation, and the history of Antarctic glaciation over the past 34 Myr. This succession is relevant, both to investigations of modern climate change and to studies of long-term palaeoclimate...

Depositional-dip-oriented transects through coastal-plain to nearshore marine domains are essential elements of generic sequence stratigraphic models for continental-margin successions. Many questions remain about the validity of these models, however, because well-constrained outcrop examples are sparse. Presented herein is the first detailed stud...

The Drummond Basin is a premier precious metal epithermal mineralised province in Queensland; it has also been previously explored for coal and hydrocarbons. It is a rift basin hat straddles the boundary between the Thomson and New England Orogens, and has likely recorded events occurring within both orogens. It contains a thick sequence of Upper D...

The Early Permian tectonic history of eastern Australia led to the formation of several orogenic curvatures termed the New England oroclines. How these oroclines formed is a controversial issue that is crucial for understanding the paleo-Pacific subduction dynamics at the Gondwanan margin and the formation of curved orogenic belts in general. Here...

Laterally extensive beds of dolomitized carbonate are found interbedded with eolian to peritidal sandstones in the hydrocarbon-producing Pennsylvanian to earliest Permian successions of the Wyoming Shelf, USA. Subsurface and surface correlations often rely on these dolomite intervals yet their origin is poorly constrained. To characterize the natur...

Anomalous carbonate horizons with intercrystalline hydrocarbon residue, cone-in-cone structures, and calcite “beef” veins in adjacent sandstone beds record potential evidence for hydrocarbon generation and seepage in the middle to upper Turonian Frontier Formation from the Uinta Basin, Utah and Colorado. Eight carbonate occurrences, all encountered...