Sequence stratigraphy and correlation of late Carboniferous and Permian in the CIS, Europe, Tethyan area, North Africa, Arabia, China, Gondwanaland and the USA Alain Izart a; Ã , Randell Stephenson b , Gian Battista Vai c , Daniel Vachard d , Yves Le Nindre e , Denis Vaslet e , Pierre-Jean Fauvel a , Peter Su «ss f , Olga Kossovaya g , Zhongquiang Chen h , Alexander Maslo i , Serguei Stovba j a Sciences de la Terre, Universite ¤ de Nancy I, UMR CNRS 7566, P.O.Box 239, 54506 Vandoeuvre les Nancy, France b Netherlands Research School of Sedimentary Geology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands c Dipartimento Scienze Geologiche, Via Zamboni 67, I-40127 Bologna, Italy d Laboratoire de Pale ¤ontologie, Universite ¤ des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, URA CNRS 1365, 59655 Villeveuve d’Ascq cedex, France d BRGM, SGN/GEO, P.O.Box 6009, 45060 Orle ¤ans cedex 2, France f Geologisches Institut der Universita «t Bonn, Nussallee 8, 53115 Bonn, Germany g VSEGEI, 74 pr. Sredny, Saint Petersburg, Russia h Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Academia Sinica, Nanjing 210008, PR China i National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Institute of Geological Sciences, 55b Chaklov Street, 252601 Kiev, Ukraine j Ukrgeofyzika, Zapadinskaja Street, Kiev, Ukraine Received 6 October 2000; accepted 23 January 2003 Abstract Sequence stratigraphy was used to correlate the depositional chronology during Permo^Carboniferous time in various sedimentary basins of Gondwanaland, western Europe, eastern Europe, Tethyan area, North Africa, Arabia, China, and North America. During late Carboniferous and Permian, eleven second-order sequences (SOS) were recognised throughout the whole area. The sequence SI is Serpukhovian pp, Namurian A pp and Chesterian. The sequence SII is Serpukhovian pp^Bashkirian pp, Namurian A pp-B-C^Westphalian A^B pp and Morrowan. The sequence SIII is late Bashkirian^Moscovian, Westphalian B pp-C-D and Atokan^Desmoinesian. The sequence SIV is Kasimovian, early Stephanian and Missourian. The sequence SV is Gzhelian^Orenburgian, late Stephanian and Virgilian. The sequence SVI is Asselian, Autunian and Nealian. The sequences SVII^IX are Saxonian, Sakmarian^ Artinskian^Kungurian and Leonardian^Hessian^Cathedralian. The sequences SX^XI are Guadalupian and Lopingian. Depending on the regional setting, different relationships exist between marine transgression and the respective effects of tectonics and of sea-level changes: in western Europe, effects of the glacial processes in GondwanalandarepartlybalancedbythelatecompressionintheHercynianbeltduringMoscovian.EasternEurope, Tethyan area, North Africa, China, and North America show a good correlation between glacial (ice melting) processesinGondwanalandandtheintensityofthetransgressionwhichisincreasedbythewestwardprogradationof 0031-0182/03/$ ^ see front matter ß 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0031-0182(03)00313-4 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 3 87 66 2012; Fax: +33 3 87 37 86 07. E-mail address: izart.alain@wanadoo.fr (A. Izart). PALAEO 3084 23-6-03 Cyaan Magenta Geel Zwart Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 196 (2003) 59^84 www.elsevier.com/locate/palaeo