EXAMINING POSSIBLE PALEOCLIMATIC CYCLICITY IN SANDSTONES OF THE LOWER DUNKARD GROUP, OHIO

In Ohio geology, the stratigraphic position of the Carboniferous-Permian transition is widely contested. Although postulated that it occurs within the Dunkard Group, where precisely that is has yet to be definitively determined. Estimates of the Dunkard Group base vary from nearly 275 Ma to greater than 300 Ma. Although one of the defining features of the Carboniferous-Permian transition was a substantial drying trend, sandstone investigation for paleoclimate information about the Dunkard Group has been scant. Evidence for such a trend could manifest itself in mineralogical changes as well as the granulometry of fluvial deposits. Here we apply sedimentary petrological methods, grain size analysis, XRD, XRF, to examine Dunkard sandstone cyclicity and parse possible climatic signals.