3D PALEOGEOGRAPHIC RECONSTRUCTIONS OF LATE PALEOZOIC CONTINENTS AND OCEAN BASINS

Plate tectonic, paleogeographic and paleoceanographic events during the Late Paleozoic may have transformed the Earth from a Hot House to Ice House world. In order to better understand the changing world of the Late Paleozoic, five, 3D paleogeographic models were built that illustrate the paleotopography of the continents and a speculative paleobathymetry of the Late Paleozoic ocean basins. 3D paleoglobes have been made for the Late Devonian ( Famenian, 360 Ma), Early Carboniferous (Visean, 340 Ma), mid-Carboniferous (Namurian, 320 Ma), Late Carboniferous ( Moscovian, 300 Ma), and Early Permian ( Sakmarian, 280 ma).

During the Late Devonian, a pre-Pangea had begun to assemble in the southern hemisphere. North America was in collision with northern South America, and the ocean basins between Europe and North Africa had nearly disappeared. Paleotethyan ocean basins, however, still separated Siberia from the Kazakhstan island arcs, and a wide ocean lay between the Cathaysian continents (N. & S. China) northern hemisphere continents. During the early Carboniferous (Tournaisian-Visean), pre-Pangea rotated northward. The Canadian Arctic moved from an equatorial position to a subtropical latitude, and the still emergent Caledonian and Northern Appalchians moved into the equtorial rainy belt. Siberia and the island arcs of Kazakhstan had begun to coalesce, and the Cathaysian continents (North and South China), separate from Gondwana, were in transit across PaleoTethys. By the mid-Carboniferous (Namurian B), western Pangea had assembled. The rising, equatorial, Central Pangean Mountains separated North America and Europe from the Gondwana continents. Kazakhstania and Siberia were in collision, and North China, with South China in tow, was beginning to collide along the Tien Shan range of southern Kazahstan. Through the mid and late Carboniferous, and into the earliest Permian, convergence and mountain building continued the consolidation of western Pangea.

The paleotography and paleobathymetry of the Late Paleozoic world has been modelled using inexpensive, 3D rendering software (Amorphium). These 3D elevation models have a vertical resolution of 40 meters, and geographic resolution of aproximately 10 km.