Abstract

Palaeoclimates of Pangea (mid-Carboniferous to mid-Jurassic) range from glacial to hot and arid. During the Late Carboniferous extensive Gondwanan glaciation began, firstly with ice caps in South America and Australia in tectonically active regions where land was uplifted to high altitudes. The focus of glaciation moved from western Gondwana across South Africa, India, Antarctica and Australia as the South Pole shifted eastwards, until the last remnants of glaciation disappeared in the Late Permian. In the Northern Hemisphere peat formed in Late Carboniferous humid, tropical low latitudes, with evaporitic regions further north. In contrast, peat which formed in Gondwana during Permian postglacial times was composed of vegetation dominated by Glossopterid plants living in cold, wet and seasonal climates. Northern Hemisphere Permian environments were arid and characterised by deserts and evaporites. The principal feature of Triassic climates is the marked aridity, particularly in continental interiors, and intense seasonality. This supports the hypothesis that Pangean climates were dominated by monsoonal-type circulation, related to Pangean continental configuration, which reached maximum strength during the Triassic. The little that is known of the Early Triassic suggests the climate was very arid for a while but gradually became wetter in the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic.