Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Evidence of Wildfires in the Late Permian (Changsinghian) Zewan formation of Kashmir, India


Affiliations
1 Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Ambiente e Desenvolvimento, PPGAD. Centro Universitário Univates, Lajeado, Brazil
2 Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226 007, India
3 Department of Geology, University of Jammu, Jammu 180 006, India
4 Universidade Federal do Tocantins, Porto Nacional, Brazil
5 Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brazil
6 Directorate of Geology and Mining, Jammu and Kashmir Government, Srinagar 190 002, India
 

The first record of palaeo-wildfire evidence in the form of charcoal is documented from the Late Permian Zewan Formation of the Kashmir region, northwest Himalaya. This evidence is in the form of fragments of tracheids that show homogenized cell walls, a characteristic feature of charcoal. Considering that palaeowildfire studies provide important palaeoecological information, the present study is significant, as it allows reconstructing new information about environmental conditions during the deposition of the sediments of the Late Permian Zewan Formation.

Keywords

Charcoal, Gondwana, Himalayan Region, Late Palaeozoic, Marine Environment.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Tewari, R. et al., The Permian–Triassic palynological transition in the Guryul Ravine Section, Kashmir, India: implications for Tethyan–Gondwanan correlations. Earth Sci. Rev., 2015, 149, 53– 66; doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2014.08.018.

  • Abu Hamad, A. M. B., Jasper, A. and Uhl, D., The record of Triassic charcoal and other evidence for palaeo-wildfires: signal for atmospheric oxygen levels, taphonomic bias or lack of fuel? Int. J. Coal Geol., 2012, 96–97, 60–71.

  • Jasper, A., Guerra-Sommer, M., Abu Hamad, A. M. B., Bamford, M., Bernardes-de-Oliveira, M., Tewari, R. and Uhl D., The burning of Gondwana: Permian fires on the southern continent – a palaeobotanical approach. Gondwana Res., 2013, 24, 148–160.

  • Glasspool, I. J., A major fire event recorded in the mesofossils and petrology of the Late Permian, Lower Whybrow coal seam, Sydney Basin, Australia. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 2000, 164, 373–396.

  • Slater, B. J., McLoughlin, S. and Hilton, J., A high-latitude Gondwanan lagerstätte: The Permian permineralised peat biota of the Prince Charles Mountains, Antarctica. Gondwana Res., 2014, 27, 1446–1473.

  • Metcalfe, I., Crowley, J. L., Nicoll, R. S. and Schmitz, M., Highprecision U–Pb CA-TIMS calibration of Middle Permian to Lower Triassic sequences, mass extinction and extreme climate-change in eastern Australian Gondwana. Gondwana Res., 2015, 28(3), 905– 932; doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2014.09.002.

  • Jasper, A., Guerra-Sommer, M., Uhl, D., Bernardes-de-Oliveira, M. E. C., Ghosh, A. K., Tewari, R. and Secchi, M. I., Palaeobotanical evidence of wildfires in the Upper Permian of India: macroscopic charcoal remains from the Raniganj Formation, Damodar Valley Basin. Palaeobotanist, 2012, 61, 75–82.

  • Mahesh, S., Murthy, S., Charaborty, B. and Roy, M. D., Fossil charcoal as Palaeofire indicators: Taphonomy and morphology of charcoal remains in sub-surface Gondwana sediments of South Karanpura Coalfield. J. Geol. Soc. India, 2015, 85, 567–576.

  • Diessel, C. F. K., The stratigraphic distribution of inertinite. Int. J. Coal Geol., 2010, 81, 251–268.

  • Nakazawa, K., Kapoor, H. M., Ishii, K., Bando, Y., Okimura, Y. and Tokuoka, T., The Upper Permian and Lower Triassic in Kashmir, India. Memoirs of Faculty of Science, 42, Kyoto University, Series of Geology and Mineralogy, Kyoto, 1975, pp. 1–106.

  • Brookfield, M. E., Twitchett, R. J. and Goodings, C., Palaeoenvironments of the Permian–Triassic transition sections in Kashmir, India. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 2003, 198, 353– 371.

  • Lydekker, R., The geology of Kashmir and Chambe territories and British District of Khagan. Mem. Geol. Surv. India, 1883, 22, 1–344.

  • Singh, G., Maithy, P. K. and Bose, M. N., Upper Palaeozoic flora of Kashmir Himalaya. Palaeobotanist, 1982, 30, 185–232.

  • Bhargava, O. N., Palaeozoic successions of the Indian Plate. Mem. Geol. Soc. India, 2008, 74, 209–244.

  • Hayden, H. H., The stratigraphical position of the Gangamopteris beds of Kashmir. Rec. Geol. Surv. India, 1907, 36, 23–39.

  • Middlemiss, C. S., A revision of the Silurian-Trias sequence in Kashmir. Rec. Geol. Surv. India, 1910, 40, 206–260.

  • Wadia, D. N., Cambrian–Triassic sequence of N.W. Kashmir. Rec. Geol. Surv. India, 1934, 68, pt. 2, 121–176.

  • Bhat, G. M. and Bhat, G. D., Stratigraphy and depositional environments of Late Permian carbonates, Kashmir Himalaya. In Geology in South Asia (eds Wijayananda, N. P. et al.) – II Professional paper 7, Geological Survey and Mines Bureau, Sri Lanka, 1997, pp. 205–223.

  • Rasband, W. S., ImageJ, US National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA, 1997–2014; http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/.

  • Jones, T. P. and Chaloner, W., Charcoal, its recognition and palaeoatmospheric significance. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 1991, 97, 29–50.

  • Scott, A. C., The pre-Quaternary history of fire. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 2000, 164, 297–345.

  • Scott, A. C., Charcoal recognition, taphonomy and uses in palaeoenvironmental analysis. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 2010, 291, 11–39.

  • Scott, A. C., Bowman, D. M. J. S., Bond, W. J., Pyne, S. J. and Alexander, M. E., Fire on Earth: An Introduction, Wiley Blackwell, 2014, pp. 1–413.

  • Finsinger, W., Kelly, R., Fevre, J. and Magyari, E. K., A guide to screening charcoal peaks in macrocharcoal-area records for fireepisode reconstructions. Holocene, 2014, 24, 1002–1008.

  • Masselter, T. and Hofmann, Ch.-Ch., Palynology and palynofacies of Miocene coalbearing (clastic) sediments of the Hausruck area (Austria). Geobios, 2005, 38, 127–138.

  • Schweigert, G. and Dietl, G., Miscellanea aus dem Nusplinger Plattenkalk (Ober-Kimmeridgium, Schwäbische Alb) 7. Fossile Holzkohle. Jb Mitt Oberrhein geol Ver NF, 2006, 88, 85–92.

  • Martill, D. M., Loveridge, R. F., Mohr, B. A. R. and Simmonds, E., A wildfire origin for terrestrial organic debris in the Cretaceous Santana Formation Fossil Lagerstätte (Araripe Basin) of north-east Brazil. Cretaceous Res., 2012, 34, 135–141.

  • Uhl, D. and Kerp, H., Wildfires in the late Paleozoic of Central Europe-the Zechstein (Upper Permian) of NW-Hesse (Germany). Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 2003, 199, 1–15.

  • Grasby, S. E., Sanei, H. and Beauchamp, B., Catastrophic dispersion of coal fly ash into oceans during the latest Permian extinction. Nat. Geosci., 2011, 4, 104–107.

  • Uhl, D., Butzmann, R., Fischer, T. C., Meller, B. and Kustatscher, E., Wildfires in the late Palaeozoic and Mesozoic of the Southern Alps – The late Permian of the Bletterbach-Butterloch area (Northern Italy). Riv. Ital. Paleontol. Stratigr., 2012, 118, 223– 233.

  • Wang, Z. Q. and Chen, A. S., Traces of arborescent lycopsids and dieback of the forest vegetation in relation to the terminal Permian mass extinction in North China. Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol., 2001, 117, 217–243.

  • Shen, S. Z. et al., Calibrating the end-Permian mass extinction. Science, 2011, 334, 1367–1372.

  • Uhl, D., Abu Hamad, A. M. B., Kerp, H. and Bandel, K., Evidence for palaeo-wildfire in the Late Permian palaeotropics – charcoalified wood from the Um Irna Formation of Jordan. Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol., 2007, 144, 221–230.

  • Jasper, A., Uhl, D., Guerra-Sommer, M. and Mosbrugger, V., Palaeobotanical evidence of wildfires in the Late Paleozoic of South America – Early Permian, Rio Bonito Formation, Paraná Basin, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. J. South Am. Earth Sci., 2008, 26, 435–444.

  • Jasper, A., Uhl, D., Guerra-Sommer, M., Bernardes-de-Oliveira, M. E. C. and Machado, N. T. G., The Late Paleozoic charcoal remains from South America: multiple evidence of fire events in the coal-bearing strata of the Paraná Basin, Brazil. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 2011, 306, 205–218.

  • Jasper, A., Uhl, D., Guerra-Sommer, M., Abu Hamad, A. M. B. and Machado, N. T. G., Palaeowildfires in Gondwana: Remains from a tonstein in the Faxinal coalfield, a Lower Permian coal succession in Southern Paraná Basin, Brazil. An. Acad. Bras. Ciênc., 2011, 83, 471–481.

  • Jasper, A., Manfroi, J., Schmidt, E. O., Machado, N. T. G., Konrad, O. and Uhl, D., Evidências paleobotânicas de incêndios vegetacionais no Afloramento Morro Papaléo, Paleozóico Superior do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Geonomos, 2011, 19, 18–27.

  • Rees, McA., Land–plant diversity and the end-Permian mass extinction. Geology, 2002, 30, 827–830.


Abstract Views: 365

PDF Views: 188




  • Evidence of Wildfires in the Late Permian (Changsinghian) Zewan formation of Kashmir, India

Abstract Views: 365  |  PDF Views: 188

Authors

Andre Jasper
Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Ambiente e Desenvolvimento, PPGAD. Centro Universitário Univates, Lajeado, Brazil
Dieter Uhl
Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Ambiente e Desenvolvimento, PPGAD. Centro Universitário Univates, Lajeado, Brazil
Deepa Agnihotri
Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226 007, India
Rajni Tewari
Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226 007, India
Sundeep K. Pandita
Department of Geology, University of Jammu, Jammu 180 006, India
Jose Rafael Wanderley Benicio
Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Ambiente e Desenvolvimento, PPGAD. Centro Universitário Univates, Lajeado, Brazil
Etiene Fabbrin Pires
Universidade Federal do Tocantins, Porto Nacional, Brazil
Atila Augusto Stock Da Rosa
Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brazil
Gulam D. Bhat
Directorate of Geology and Mining, Jammu and Kashmir Government, Srinagar 190 002, India
S. Suresh K. Pillai
Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226 007, India

Abstract


The first record of palaeo-wildfire evidence in the form of charcoal is documented from the Late Permian Zewan Formation of the Kashmir region, northwest Himalaya. This evidence is in the form of fragments of tracheids that show homogenized cell walls, a characteristic feature of charcoal. Considering that palaeowildfire studies provide important palaeoecological information, the present study is significant, as it allows reconstructing new information about environmental conditions during the deposition of the sediments of the Late Permian Zewan Formation.

Keywords


Charcoal, Gondwana, Himalayan Region, Late Palaeozoic, Marine Environment.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv110%2Fi3%2F419-423