Do red beds indicate paleoclimatic conditions?: A Permian case study

Terrestrial red beds have long been interpreted as desert deposits by comparison with modern red deserts. More recently red beds have been interpreted as evidence of seasonally dry conditions and a Permo-Triassic Pangean monsoon. Red beds of Cala Viola, Sardinia are identified as paleosols and used to reconstruct Late Permian paleoclimatic conditions. Reconstruction of paleoenvironmental conditions based on the paleosols of the Cala Viola indicates warm, humid conditions with no evidence of dry conditions, as in a desert, or of extreme seasonality as in a monsoon. Instead, it is suggested that the red color of the paleosols is a result of former good drainage, and that red color in general does not indicate specific paleoclimatic conditions.