MSEC data sets record glacially driven cyclicity: Examples from the arrow canyon Mississippian–Pennsylvanian GSSP and associated sections

Here we report magnetic susceptibility (MS) analyses from three, mainly marine sections, the Mississippian–Pennsylvanian (Mid-Carboniferous) Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) in Arrow Canyon, SE Nevada, and two secondary sections nearby—one in Arrow Canyon (∼ 200 m distant) and the second in Battleship Wash, (∼ 2 km south of the GSSP). All three sections are easily correlated using the magnetosusceptibility event and cyclostratigraphy method (MSEC). Cyclicity is clearly apparent in all three sections, and Time-Series analysis independently verifies the MS zonation developed from the smoothed data set. The periods determined in the three sections support the argument that deposition of these Mid-Carboniferous rocks resulted from climate-controlled glacio-eustatic fluctuations that were driven by Gondwana glaciation. Given the published average thicknesses of T–R cycles (> 50 m) and the estimates for timing of glacial–interglacial cyclicity during the Mid-Carboniferous, we assign the strong FT peak observed for the three MS data sets a value of ∼ 400,000 years, corresponding to the Milankovitch E1 eccentricity band. We then calculate a Floating Point Time Scale (FPTS) for the sampled sequence. The FPTS results indicate that (1) sediment accumulation rates bracketing the Mid-Carboniferous boundary averaged ∼ 0.7 cm/1000 years, and (2) were relatively constant for these reference sections.