Phanerozoic paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic evolution in Svalbard

Abstract. Sedimentary rocks can provide information about the Earth paleoenvironment and are studied extensively to understand the causes and consequences of global climate changes in deep time. They facilitate long-time perspectives that constrain climate models and provide analogues for how Earth systems may respond to, and recover from, intervals of profound environmental change, including projected anthropogenic change. The Norwegian Svalbard archipelago offers an extensive Phanerozoic stratigraphic record that reflects the geological evolution of the northern flanks of continental assemblages that include Laurentia, Eurasia, and Pangea. Svalbard’s Phanerozoic sedimentary and paleoclimatic archive is controlled largely by Svalbard’s overall northward plate-tectonic motion from equatorial to high latitudes, but also by regional to local formation of topography and basins in response to long-term plate reorganization, as well as the near- and far-field influence of large igneous province activity on the tectono-stratigraphic and paleoclimatic development. Various sedimentary and geochemical proxies, such as bentonite beds and carbon isotope excursions associated with the far-reaching environmental effects of the Siberian Traps, the High Arctic Large Igneous Province, and the North Atlantic Igneous Province are present in Svalbard’s near complete geological record. As such, Svalbard is unique in that these and numerous other global environmental perturbations are recorded within a relatively restricted study area, with most of the key events preserved and recorded in easily accessible drill cores and well-exposed outcrop sections. Here we review deep-time paleoenvironmental and paleoclimate research in Svalbard by summarizing 148 peer-reviewed scientific articles. The review builds on the well-established tectono-stratigraphic and lithostratigraphic framework, as well as state-of-the art environmental reconstructions to provide insights into the Earth system during the Phanerozoic northward drift of Svalbard and the many major biotic crises in the geological past. We focus on globally significant events including i) the expansion of Devonian vegetation, ii) the Carboniferous-Permian response to icehouse conditions during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA), iii) the End-Permian Mass Extinction (EPME) and the subsequent Triassic recovery, the iv) Carnian Pluvial Episode, v) Jurassic-Early Cretaceous climate perturbations including the Volgian Isotopic Carbon Excursion (VOICE) and the Aptian Ocean Anoxic Event 1a (OAE1a), and vi) the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). We present and synthesize existing core and outcrop data that preserve biological and geochemical proxies and climate sensitive sedimentary facies that reflect environmental change in terrestrial and marine settings. Finally, we discuss the Phanerozoic climate recorded in Svalbard and its role in providing high latitude calibration points for several global paleoclimate events to provide a higher latitude perspective to complement the dominance of mid- and low-latitude locations and datasets in the literature.