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Oxygen and Carbon Isotopes in Marine Carbonates: A Biogenic Climate Archive Built Upon Disequilibria

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The stable isotopic composition of marine biogenic carbonates is one of the main archives for paleoclimate reconstructions. Reading these archives accurately requires understanding of how different organisms make carbonate minerals, and how various biomineralization processes influence stable isotope fractionation. New developments in stable isotope measurements, laboratory experiments, and biomineralization modeling have progressively enabled us to disentangle the environmental and biological controls on the stable isotope proxies, and offer promise for a deeper understanding of how calcifying organisms record and respond to changes in Earth’s climate and carbon cycle through geologic time.

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December 2025 --The Variscan Orogeny in Europe – Understanding Supercontinent Formation

The Variscan orogen formed between 380 and 300 million years ago through several accretionary and collisional cycles, culminating with the construction of the Pangea supercontinent. This process occurred via sequential opening and closure of oceanic basins, synchronous detachment of Gondwana derived continental ribbons, and their outboard amalgamation onto the Laurussia margin. The Variscan orogen is rather unique compared with other orogenic belts on Earth: its overthickened and dominantly magmatic crust in the central belt, surprisingly minor mantle involvement in the magmatic and geodynamic processes, coherent and pulsed magmatism along the collision suture, and its complex accretionary history. Because its final product, Pangea, is the youngest and best-understood supercontinent on Earth, the Variscan orogeny offers clues for understanding the mechanisms of supercontinent formation.