Article history: Received 24 April 2011 Received in revised form 7 March 2012 Accepted 10 March 2012 Available online xxxx

The highest rates of global organic carbon burial (up to 6.5 × 10 mol/Myr) over the past half billion years occurred during the Carboniferous–Permian (330–260 Myr), in large part because of the accumulation and burial of peat in broad tropical lowland basins (1). Atypical rates of organic carbon sequestration led to low atmospheric pCO2 and anomalously high pO2 (Fig. 1), which in turn triggered...

The possibility that the Avalon Platform, where the Avalonian lithotectonic belt is best developed, was involved in late Paleozoic displacement was tested by paleomagnetic study of red sandstones of the Upper Devonian Terrenceville Formation of eastern Newfoundland. Two magnetization directions were identified by thermal demagnetization analysis of 60 oriented samples from 10 sites: a high bloc...

Several positive carbon isotope excursions in Lower Paleozoic rocks, including the prominent Upper Cambrian Steptoean Positive Carbon Isotope Excursion (SPICE), are thought to reflect intermittent perturbations in the hydrosphere-biosphere system. Models explaining these secular changes are abundant, but the synchronicity and regional variation of the isotope signals are not well understood. Ex...

On the basis of a Mo-based geochemical proxy calibrated to the fossil record of fish, Dahl et al. argued that oxygen levels in the early Paleozoic were 15–50% of present atmospheric levels (PAL) and probably no more than a few percent PAL for the previous 2 billion years (1). It is an interesting result, but the study raised a number of issues. First, it is difficult to reconcile 15–50% PAL oxy...

Undiscovered, conventional oil and gas resources were assessed in the Senegal Province as part of the U.S. Geological Survey World Petroleum Assessment 2000 (U.S. Geological Survey World Energy Assessment Team, 2000). Although several total petroleum systems may exist in the province, only one composite total petroleum system, the CretaceousTertiary Composite Total Petroleum System, was defined...