Sedimentary facies and carbon isotopes of the Upper Carboniferous to Lower Permian in South China: Implications for icehouse to greenhouse transition

The Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA) is the so far longest-last icehouse climate state during the Phanerozoic, and recorded a complete transition from icehouse to greenhouse climate state since the occurrence of vascular plants and complex terrestrial ecosystem. Therefore, integrated studies on the icehouse-greenhouse transition of the LPIA are critical to understanding the driver and mechanism of the deep-time paleoclimate system, particularly in an icehouse climate state. However, frequent subaerial exposures and stratigraphic discontinuities in low-latitude areas due to glacio-eustatic changes from the Pennsylvanian (Late Carboniferous) to Cisuralian (Early Permian) potentially altered the primary δ¹³C signals, which hampered a valid global correlation. Here, three carbonate slope successions (Naqing, Shanglong, and Narao) in the Luodian Basin, South China Block, were selected for detailed sedimentology and high-resolution carbonate δ¹³C study. The variation of δ¹³C is compared with the sedimentary characteristics and can be correlated with global glacial events and atmospheric pCO₂ during the apex and deglaciation period of the LPIA. It suggests that δ¹³C of the Luodian Basin can potentially represent the global mean δ¹³C of the seawater dissolved inorganic carbon and provide a reference for the future study on global carbon cycling.