Editing Carboniferous (section)

=== Effects of climate on sedimentation ===
The changing climate was reflected in regional-scale changes in sedimentation patterns. In the relatively warm waters of the Early to Middle Mississippian, carbonate production occurred to depth across the gently dipping continental slopes of Laurussia and North and South China ([[Carbonate platform|carbonate ramp]] architecture)<ref name="Montañez-2022" /> and evaporites formed around the coastal regions of Laurussia, Kazakhstania, and northern Gondwana.<ref name="Stanley-2015" />

From the late Visean, the cooling climate restricted carbonate production to depths of less than c. 10 m forming [[Carbonate platform|carbonate shelves]] with flat-tops and steep sides. By the Moscovian, the waxing and waning of the ice sheets led to cyclothem deposition with mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sequences deposited on continental platforms and shelves.<ref name="Montañez-2022" /><ref name="Scotese-2021" />

Seasonal melting of glaciers resulted in near freezing waters around the margins of Gondwana. This is evidenced by the occurrence of glendonite (a pseudomorph of [[ikaite]]; a form of calcite deposited in glacial waters) in fine-grained, shallow marine sediments.<ref name="Scotese-2021" />

The glacial grinding and erosion of siliciclastic rocks across Gondwana and the Central Pangaean Mountains produced vast amounts of silt-sized sediment. Redistributed by the wind, this formed widespread deposits of loess across equatorial Pangea.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Soreghan |first1=Gerilyn S. |last2=Heavens |first2=Nicholas G. |last3=Pfeifer |first3=Lily S. |last4=Soreghan |first4=Michael J. |date=2023-01-09 |title=Dust and loess as archives and agents of climate and climate change in the late Paleozoic Earth system |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/sp535-2022-208 |journal=Geological Society, London, Special Publications |volume=535 |issue=1 |pages=195–223 |doi=10.1144/sp535-2022-208 |bibcode=2023GSLSP.535..208S |issn=0305-8719}}</ref>