Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology , 51 (1985): 273--289 273

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam -- Printed in The Netherlands

THE LATE ORDOVICIAN--EARLY SILURIAN GLACIAL PERIOD

M. J. HAMBREY
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EQ
(Great Britain)
(Received May 16, 1983;revised version accepted December 10, 1984)

ABSTRACT

Hambrey, M. J., 1985. The Late Ordovician--Early Silurian glacial period. Palaeogeogr.,
Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol., 51: 273--289.

Late Ordovician to Early Silurian tillites and evidence of extensive glacial erosion were
first discovered in the western Sahara in the late 1950's, although the concept of a glacial
period at this time had been around since the late 19th century. Further evidence of
glaciation is now available from West Africa, South Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, eastern
North America, west and central South America and Europe. Several glacial episodes can
be distinguished. The earliest evidence (local mountain glaciation?) appears to be of
Caradoc age. The major episode may have begun in Caradoc time and lasted much of
Ashgill time, when a major ice-sheet covered at least North-Central and West Africa which
was then centred near the South Pole. However, independent palaeontological and sea-
level evidence from areas far removed from the centre of glaciation suggests a time span
for this episode of less than 2 Ma. This conflict has yet to be resolved. The latest evidence
of glaciation is Wenlock in age but is confined to South America, which by then was re-
placing Africa over the South Polar region. However, this latest episode may simply have
been a rather intensive mountain glaciation rather than being of ice-sheet dimensions. The
lack of land in the North Polar region probably explains the absence of tillites from the
then northern hemisphere land masses. The total area affected by glaciation in Early
Palaeozoic time in North Africa alone is at least 6 x 10 ~ kmL Combined with other
glaciated areas glaciation may have been on the scale of that of present-day Antarctica.

INTRODUCTION

The concept of a glacial period in Early Palaeozoic time dates from 1880
when Ramsay (1880), in his enthusiasm for ancient glaciations, described a
tillite-like rock in Ayrshire, Scotland, along with alleged tillites of other ages.
Then in South Africa a glacial deposit now known as the Pakhuis Conglom-
erate Formation was identified by Rogers (1902) in the "Table Mountain
Series". A flood of claims followed to the extent that the glacial interpreta-
tion o f m a n y diamictites was discredited by the 1950's and 1960's. However,
with considerable insight Spjeldnaes (1961) postulated from climatic zona-
tions derived from faunal provinces, and from the then meagre palaeomagnetic
data, t h a t ice caps existed over the polar regions. At a time when continental

0031-0182/85]$03.30 © 1985 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.

274

Ordovician

/." L+ ? r .:~~o: - #$.. \

i... ~iY ~-q~ + +...,~ +~_u- , ~ ~ + 3.~ .. ~ \

r++ + + + + + .~ ++ ~ + + ~ + "~-+,4

\ - ~ */ d * +~+ + + M4. l+ I
X , . *,t (÷ + + -~ ÷ -~ + 'LJ, ~ 1

Silurian

:7:~. . + +

\ " .+ ,tZ.~.. + ~ + + + ~ ~ ~ /

Fig. 1. D i s t r i b u t i o n o f tillites o f O r d o v i c i a n a n d S i l u r i a n age. Triangles = e s t a b l i s h e d tillites;

s q u a r e s = d i a m i c t i t e s o f u n c e r t a i n origin; o p e n s y m b o l s = p o o r l y - d e f i n e d age; c l o s e d sym-
bols = age w e l l - d e f i n e d o n a time-scale o f a geological p e r i o d ( a f t e r H a m b r e y a n d H a r l a n d ,
1 9 8 1 , P a r t III, C h a p t e r 1).
 275

drift was o u t of fashion he postulated (fig.5) that Africa and South America
were not widely separated, and that central West Africa lay over the south
pole in Middle Ordovician time. Whereas many of the earlier described Early
Palaeozoic tillite-like rocks did indeed prove to be non-glacial, evidence for
an ice age at that time had, even so, been slowly accumulating.
Interest in an Early Palaeozoic glaciation blossomed following the w o r k of
private petroleum companies and the Institut Franqais du P4trole in the
Western and Central Sahara in the late 1950's and 1960's. Unequivocal evi-
dence for Ordovician glaciation was first discovered in the H o d h area of the
Taoudeni Basin in the western Sahara, and then in several other parts of the
same basin (Michoud et al., 1963). Soon after, the same formations were
found by scientists of the University of Dakar on the southern edge of the
Tindouf Basin in Mauritania (Sougy and Lecorche, 1963), and by French
petroleum geologists in the Central Sahara (Debyser et al., 1965). Work by
the French in the latter area resulted in the publication of the classic, richly

TABLE I

Ordovician--Silurian time-scale with glacial epochs (based on Harland et al., 1982)

Period Epoch Age Age Glacial epoch

(Ma)

Silurian 408
Late Pridoli
414
Ludlow Ludfordian
Gorstian --f-
Early Wenlock 421
Gleedon
J ~. o
Whitwell Cancamrl
Sheinwoodian
428
Llandovery Telychian
Fronian
I"
Idwian I

Ordovician Rhuddanian I
438 I

Late Ashgill Hirnantian i

i
I
Rawtheyan i
!

Cautleyan Tamadjert
Pushgillian -f-
448
Caradoc Onnian i
Actonian t
I

Marshbrookian J

Longvillian Gander Bay

Sondleyan i
0

Harnagian i
t

Costonian t

Early Llandeflo 458

Llanvirn 468
478
Aren~ 488
Tremadoc
505
276

illustrated monograph of Beuf et al. (1971). In reviewing this work, Harland

(1972) listed possible broadly coeval tillites in other parts of the world. Not
all of these have survived critical examination, but others have since been
recorded. Later, Frakes (1979) gave a more detailed survey of Early Palaeo-
zoic glaciation. There are now well-documented tillites in Africa (North and
South), the Arabian Peninsula, Europe, eastern North America and South
America (Fig.l). However, few of these show such a wide range of glacial
phenomena as those in the Central Sahara, although other beautifully pre-
served tillites and associated deposits have been thoroughly d o c u m e n t e d by
D e y n o u x (1980) from the western Sahara in Mauritania.
The purpose o f this paper is to summarise briefly the origin and distribu-
tion of Ordovician and Silurian tillites, and to discuss their palaeogeographi-
cal setting and the duration of glaciation. On the basis of fossil faunas it has
proved possible to constrain the dates of glaciation in some areas more
closely than for any other part of the pre-Pleistocene record, but there is
disagreement as to whether the glacial period was of short duration, say
1--2 Ma or an order of magnitude longer. Time divisions, from a recent time-
scale (Harland et al., 1982), that are relevant to this discussion are given in
Table I, together with probable times of glacial epochs.

DISTRIBUTION OF TILLITES

The following discussion summarises the distribution of Ordovician--

Silurian tillites continent-by-continent. It is based principally on the global
compilation of tillites in H a m b r e y and Harland (1981). The papers providing
the source of the information from this volume, together with a summary of
the main areas with tillites and the environments of deposition, are listed in
Table II.

Africa
Evidence for Ordovician glaciation in the Central Sahara is remarkable for
the excellent preservation of a wide range of terrestrial glacial, fluvioglacial,
and periglacial landforms. First described by Debyser et al. (1965) and pro-
viding the subject for a comprehensive monograph b y Beuf et al. (1971), the
glacial deposits have been named the Tamadjert Formation. They occur in
the Hoggar and the Tibesti massifs, principally in Algeria, but also in Mali,
Niger, Libya, and Chad. Resting with erosional angular u n c o n f o r m i t y on
earlier Ordovician deposits, the formation reaches more than 200 m in thick-
ness, and comprises a variety of facies, interpreted as terrestrial tillites,
glacial deposits reworked by meltwater, glaciolacustrine or glaciomarine
deposits, and aeolian deposits. Periglacial structures preserved include sand-
stone wedges, partings of fine sandstone (gr~s cloisonnes) resulting from
aeolian sand filling frost cracks, and hydrolaccoliths (probable pingos).
Glacial erosional and glaciotectonic phenomena include striated and grooved
 277

pavements, roches moutonn~es, glacial valleys, crescentic friction cracks,

step fractures, ice-push structures and structures resulting from ice overriding
the periglacial substrate. Drumlins, fluted tillite surfaces and esker-like struc-
tures have also been reported. The glacial deposits have been divided into
several sequences, each beginning with an u n c o n f o r m i t y showing evidence
of glacial abrasion, and suggesting a complex advance and retreat history.
The glacial sequences are overlain by Early Silurian marine shales, which
indicates an abrupt, though not everywhere synchronous, transgression. The
lower b o u n d a r y of the Tamadjert Formation lies within strata of Caradoc
age. Deposition of Silurian shales subsequently occurred in Early to Middle
Llandovery, or even Wenlock time. The time-span of the glacial sequence is
thus given as Caradoc to Middle Llandovery.
Further extensive Late Ordovician glacial deposits to the west, particularly
in the Taoudeni Basin and on the southern edge of the Tindouf Basin, espe-
cially in Mauritania, have been the subject of a comprehensive investigation
by D e y n o u x (1980). The term Tichit Group has been suggested for the
glacial succession, which reaches 200 m in thickness and consists of a wide
range of facies, including continental tillites and fluvioglacial deposits,
succeeded by glaciomarine graptolitic shales with dropstones. Glacial and
periglacial features preserved resemble those in Hoggar and Tibesti. Palaeon-
tological data indicate that the Tichit Group can be bracketed between Early
Ordovician and Early Silurian. The age of the lower boundary falls probably
within Caradoc or Ashgill time, while the upper boundary is located on t o p
of Ashgill rocks.
To the north, tillites occur in the Upper Second Bani Sandstone Forma-
tion of the T i n d o u f Basin, Morocco; the glacial character of which was
originally outlined by Destombes (1968). Although few of the sedimentary
characteristics of this formation have been described, the age is well-con-
strair~ed b y fossil faunas as Hirnantian, thus limiting it to a time span of only
a few million years. However, this region was probably near the outer limit
of the North African ice-sheet.
In Sierra Leone (Reid and Tucker, 1972) and possibly Ghana (Talbot,
1975) glacigenic sediments are inferred to be Early Palaeozoic, but direct
evidence of age is lacking. Those of Sierra Leone belong to a 150 m thick
giaciomarine-turbidite succession k n o w n as the Waterfall Formation of the
Saionia Scarp Group. Similar deposits in the Ajua Formation of Ghana are
inferred to be the result o f rafting b y sea ice.
The rest of Africa is devoid of Late Ordovician--Early Silurian tillites until
we reach South Africa. Here three well-established tillite horizons have been
recorded within the Pakhuis Conglomerate Formation of Cape Province.
Together t h e y reach 100 m in thickness and suggest a complex shallow
marine--terrestrial glacial environment. These tillites were discovered b y
Rodgers (1902, 1904) and his w o r k probably represents the first record of
an Early Palaeozoic glacial sequence that has survived critical examination
subsequently.
TABLE II t'~
O0
Summary of Late Ordovician--Early Silurian glacigenic sediments and their depositional environments

Area Age estimate Environments of deposition Source a

Sea Terrestrial Glacio- Glacio- Fluvio- Periglacial
ice marine lacustrine glacial

Africa
Tindouf Basin, Hirnantian Destombes (1981)
Morocco
* *? * •
Taoudeni Basin, ?Caradoc--Ashgill D e y n o u x and Trompette
West Africa (1981)
,
Sierra Leone Ordovician--Early Tucker and Reid (1981)
Silurian
Central Sahara Caradoc--Middle *? *? * • Biju-Duval et al. (1981)
Llandovery
Southwest Ghana Early Palaeozoic *? *? *? Talbot (1981)
South Africa Latest Ordovician-- Rust (1981)
Early Silurian
Asia
* *?
North Arabian Camdoc--Ashgill Young (1981)
Peninsula
Europe
Northeast Scotland Early Ordovician * *? H a m b r e y and W a d d a m s
(or Late Proterozoic) (1981)
West Ireland Ordovician * ? Williams (1981)
Thuringia, Ashgill--?earliest Steiner and Falk (1981)
East Germany Silurian
Normandy, France Caradoc--Ashgill * Dor~ (1981)
Northeast Spain Ashgill--Llandovery *?
Central Spain Camdoc--Ashgill *? R o b a r d e t (1981)
Northwest Portugal Caradoc--Llandovery *?
North America
Nova Scotia Late Or dovician *? Schenk and Lane (1981)
Northeast Newfoundland Caradoc Harland (1981)
North Newfoundland Late Or dovician-- *? Kennedy (1981 )
Early Silurian
South America
Amazon Bagin, Brazil ?Late Ordovician-- *? Rocha-Campos ( 198 l a )
Llandovery
Southwest Coastal Peru Early Palaeozoic *? *? Cobbing (1981)
(?Wenlock)
Southwest Bolivia, Wenlock Crowell et al. (1981)
North Argentina,
East Peru
Paran~ Basin, Brazil Late Ordovician-- *? *? Rocha-Campos (198 l b )
Silurian

aAU references are papers in Earth's Pre-Pleistocene Glacial Record by Hambrey and Harland (1981).

b~

qD
280

Asia

The only recorded Ordovician--Silurian tillites in Asia occur in the Tabuk

F o r m a t i o n of the northern Arabian Peninsula (McClure, 1978). They are
regarded as of probable late Caradoc age. Terrestrial glacial phenomena are
widespread and there are also possible glaciolacustrine sediments. This suc-
cession is terminated b y marine sandstones of the Llandovery transgression.

Europe

Several European countries have evidence of Ordovician glacial activity.

Glaciomarine sediments with fine dropstones occur at the t o p of the upper
Dalradian MacDuff Slates in Northeastern Scotland. These were first de-
scribed as ice-rafted sediments by Sutton and Watson (1954) w h o at the
time tentatively correlated them with the Late Proterozoic Port Askaig
tiUite of western and central Scotland. Their age is still uncertain with
palaeontological and radiometric data in conflict, but an early Ordovician
age is likely, although the possibility o f it being equivalent to the Port Askalg
tillite should not be discounted.
In western Ireland the Maumtrasna Formation of Ordovician age was sug-
gested b y Williams (1979) to have a glacial c o m p o n e n t . The formation is said
to be fluvioglacial, since its stones and garnet grains bear evidence of glacial
working. There is, however, no direct evidence o f glaciation.
In Thuringia, East Germany, a cleaved diamictite in the Gr/ifenthaler
Series, known as the Lederschiefer, has been interpreted as either glacio-
marine or due to submarine slumping. An ice-rafting hypothesis was pro-
posed by Deubel (1929) and further developed b y Katzung (1961) and
others. Dropstones and striated stones strongly suggest a glacial origin. The
succession is 250 m thick and although largely of Ashgill age it could extend
into earliest Silurian time.
The Feuguerolles Tillite of Normandy, France, is a similar glaciomarine
deposit of Caradoc--Ashgill age, the glacial origin of which was first recog-
nised by Dangeard and Dor6 (1971). It approaches 100 m in thickness and
consists of three distinct but closely spaced glacial members. Probable til-
lites occur at a number of scattered localities in Spain and Portugal, within
the Solbedo F o r m a t i o n (northwest Portugal), the "Pelitas con fragmentos"
(central Spain) and the Orea Shale (northeast Spain) (Arbey and Tamain,
1971). None has been studied in detail, but a glaciomarine interpretation of
most of them is favoured. Caradoc, Ashgill and even Llandovery ages have
been suggested for these deposits.

North America

Well-documented Early Palaeozoic tillites in North America are con-

fined to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Two successions are known in
 281

Newfoundland, both of them in the Central Mobile Zone of strongly tecto-

nised rocks, although glacial characteristics are well preserved. The Stoneville
F o r m a t i o n of the Port Albert Peninsula considered by McCann and K e n n e d y
(1974) to be glaciomarine, consists of 600 m of siltstones and greywackes
with numerous dropstones. The formation is probably of Ashgill to Llan-
dovery age. The u n n a m e d glacigenic member of the Davidsville Group near
Gander Bay (Pickerell et al., 1979) is much thinner. It is also believed to be
glaciomarine but the age seems to be rather older, namely Caradoc.
Evidence of Late Ordovician glaciation in western Nova Scotia was pre-
sented by Schenk (1972). In that area tillites account for a third of the
91 m thick Halifax Formation. Although the succession is metamorphosed,
some stones bear striations and other features o f glacial working; some drop-
stone deposits have also been reported, suggesting a glaciomarine origin.
These have not yet been better dated than Late Ordovician.

South America

TiUites of Late Ordovician to Early Silurian age are widespread in South

America. The best known belong to the extensive Cancafiiri Formation,
which crops out in a belt 1500 km long from northern Argentina, through
the high eastern Andes across Bolivia and into the foothills of eastern Peru;
it m a y also extend into northern Chile. Glacial characteristics were recog-
nised by Schlagintweit (1943) who introduced the term Zapla Glacial
Horizon (later Tillite and Formation) for beds in northern Argentina. The
thickness of the formation ranges from 21 to 680 m in Bolivia with possibly
as much as 1400 m in the Ticatica "sub-basin". Several units of massive dia-
mictite up to 60 m thick are intercalated with shale and sandstone. The
Cancafiiri F o r m a t i o n is inferred to be almost entirely glaciomarine, derived
from tide-water glaciers descending from mountains to the west and south-
west of the depositional basin. The sediments have undergone much rework-
ing. The age o f the formation is restricted to the Ashgill--Wenlock interval,
and palynological evidence suggests that it is almost entirely of Wenlock age,
so these deposits are significantly younger than Early Palaeozoic tillites in
other continents.
A 1500 m thick deformed and metamorphosed diamictite known as the
Marcona F o r m a t i o n in southwestern coastal Peru is tentatively correlated
with the Cancafiiri Formation. There is evidence for both glaciomarine and
terrestrial deposition, first indicated by Caldas (1978).
Diamictites of uncertain origin occur extensively in the A m a z o n basin,
where t h e y form part of the several hundred meters thick Trombe~as Forma-
tion with its wide variety o f continental to offshore glacial facies, first inter-
preted by Carozzi et al. (1973). The Parar~ Basin of Brazil contains the 16 m
thick Iapo F o r m a t i o n which was considered to be a tillite by Maack (1947).
The age, perhaps Early Palaeozoic, is uncertain, and depositional processes
other t h a n glacial, e.g. mass flow, have not been ruled out.
282

GLACIAL SEQUENCE IN TIME

The Late Ordovician to Early Silurian glacial period appears to have been
the first o f any global significance since the termination of the second Varan-
glan glacial epoch in latest Proterozoic time. It belongs to the Gondwanan
Glacial Era of Chumakov (1981) which also embraces the much more pro-
longed and extensive Permo-Carboniferous glacial period. Examination of
the Early Palaeozoic r e c o r d is assisted b y fauna with narrow time ranges, and
three distinct glacial epochs are suggested. Although the time spans of some
tillites are rather broad, it is unlikely that t h e y belong to more than one of
these epochs. T h e y are each named in Table I after the areas where their ages
are best constrained.
The earliest evidence of glaciation appears in strata of Caradoc age in
northeastern Newfoundland, the northern Arabian Peninsula, and in the
Central Sahara. The peak of glaciation came somewhat later in Ashgill time,
when a large ice-sheet developed over much of north and west Africa, while
much debris was being ice-rafted over western Europe and the Appalachians
area of North America. Extensive continental ice m a y have lasted into Llan-
dovery time, but there is indirect evidence to suggest that glacial conditions
were short-lived. In Morocco detailed faunal studies have constrained the age
of the tillites to Hirnantian, which lasted only a few million years according
to the Harland et al. (1982) time scale, b u t these were deposited close to the
periphery of the ice sheet (Deynoux, 1980) and may only represent a small
part of the time o f glaciation. A major transgression, believed to have been
eustatic, has been d o c u m e n t e d in Africa for Llandovery time, suggesting
rapid dissolution of the African ice sheet. Some African strata show multi-
tillite successions, suggesting at least several glacial events.
The best-documented South American tillites (of the Cancafiiri Forma-
tion) are regarded as of Wenlock age; others in South America m a y be Late
Ordovician. The tillites were deposited mainly in a marine environment, the
ice having originated from highland areas. There is no evidence to suggest
anything more than extensive mountain glaciation.
Indirect evidence of changes in ice volume in Early Palaeozoic time comes
from sea-level changes in many parts of the world, as indicated b y depth-
related, brachlopod-dominated benthic communities (McKerrow, 1979). No
worid-wide regression is recognised for either Caradoc or Wenlock time, which
suggests only local mountain glaciation, b u t Late Ashgill regression followed
by Early Llandovery transgression is recorded world-wide (McKerrow, 1979,
fig.l). This pattern correlates well with the maximum extent of continental
ice and its subsequent disintegration, b u t not with the evidence from the
Sahara, which suggests onset of continental glaciation beginning in Caradoc
time.
More detailed data concerning the Late Ordovician regression and Early
Silurian transgression have been presented by Brenchley and NewaU (1980).
In the Oslo region there is a rapid change in later Hirnantian time from deep
 283

water to shallow water and back to deep water facies. Sea level changes are
estimated to have been around 100 m or half the Quaternary effect, and are
interpreted as being eustatic. G o o d faunal control suggests a duration of con-
tinental glaciation in Hirnantian time of no longer than 2 Ma, and possibly as
little as 1 Ma. Again this is in disagreement with the Saharan evidence. How-
ever, local glacial centres m a y have lasted for a much longer period. Further
data are needed, both to determine whether sea level changes were really
eustatic, and to obtain more precise dating of glacial sequences.

EARLY PALAEOZOIC PALAEOGEOGRAPHY

According to most palaeocontinental reconstructions, North Africa be-

came centred over the South Pole in Late Ordovician time, b u t there are
large discrepancies concerning the positioning of other continents. One
widely used continental reconstruction is that of Smith et al. (1981), and
this is used as the basis for a c o m p u t e r plot of all Early Palaeozoic tillites in
Fig.2. This reconstruction is based on palaeomagnetic data and Smith et al.
have pointed out that for maps this old there are considerable uncertainties
in positioning of continental fragments. TiUites m a y be regarded as one of
several types of geological data that can varify the validity of reconstructions
based purely on physical parameters.
The presence of Ashgill tillites in North and West Africa clearly supports
the proximity of the South Pole at this time, as determined palaeomagneti-
cally. However, the tillites o f eastern North America and Europe, raised diffi-
culties because they appear in low latitudes well away from t h e main ice-sheet.
The first evidence of glaciation, in Caradoc time, is in Newfoundland as well
as the Central Sahara, and was followed b y Ashgill glaciation in other parts
of northeastern U.S.A. Either one has to invoke the presence of mountains
sufficiently high to generate tidewater glaciers (as might have occurred at the
destructive plate margin prior to the closure of the Iapetus Ocean), or to
accept that the palaeomagnetically-based reconstruction is not sufficiently
refined. Support for the latter comes from palaeontological data as Spjeldnaes
(1981) has shown. Faunal exchanges between Europe and North America
indicate the closing (or at least substantial narrowing) of Iapetus in mid-
Ordovician time, by which time Newfoundland and the Maritime Provinces
became part of the Anglo-Baltic faunal province. Similarly, there was large
scale faunal exchange between the North European and Mediterranean
provinces (the latter extending into North Africa). On this basis Spjeldnaes
(1981) has Europe and Africa (with Arabia) in juxtaposition, with eastern
North America also close to Europe by late Ordovician time. Alternatively,
Schenk and Lane (1981) suggested specifically that Nova Scotia lay off
Morocco, while McKerrow (1979) presented evidence to show that Nova
Scotia lay on the east side of Iapetus at this time. Accepting these arguments
means that the North American and European tillites were deposited in high
latitudes, perhaps near the periphery of a continental ice-sheet that covered
 b~
O0
4

Fig.2. C o m p u t e r p l o t o f all digitised E a r l y P a l a e o z o i c tillite d a t a o n a S m i t h et al. ( 1 9 8 1 ) c y l i n d r i c a l e q u i d i s t a n t r e c o n s t r u c t i o n for

4 4 0 Ma. ( A p p r o x . Ashgill). T r i a n g l e s = e s t a b l i s h e d tillites; s q u a r e s = d i a m i c t i t e s of u n c e r t a i n origin; i n v e r t e d triangles = fluvioglacial
deposits; o p e n s y m b o l s = p o o r l y - d e f i n e d age; closed s y m b o l s = age w e l l - d e f i n e d o n a time-scale o f a geological period. R e c t a n g u l a r grid
is based o n a 3 0 ° interval o f l a t i t u d e a n d l o n g i t u d e . C o n t i n e n t s are s h o w n w i t h t h e i r p r e s e n t - d a y 10 ° l a t i t u d e a n d l o n g i t u d e grid pat-
tern. C o n t i n e n t a l shelf edge is also s h o w n , b a s e d o n 1 0 0 0 m b a t h y m e t r i c c o n t o u r . See S m i t h e t al. ( 1 9 8 1 ) f o r details o f r e c o n s t r u c t i o n .
 285

all of North and West Africa and possibly the whole African continent plus
Arabia. It also implies that some o f the palaeomagnetic data from the Cale-
donides are in need of revision.
South America's position in Smith et al.'s (1981) reconstructions indicates
that it was attached t o Africa, and that during the course of Late Ordovician
and Silurian time it gradually replaced Africa over the South Pole. Movement
of this nature is supported b y the glacial evidence. Although glacial condi-
tions m a y have begun in Ashgill time, they clearly survived longer into the
Silurian Period than in any other continent. However, whereas African
glacial conditions were of the continental ice-sheet type, those of South
America appear to be essentially related to high mountains. One might
suppose that, b u t for the presence of mountains in the South Polar regions,
the Early Palaeozoic glacial period would have ended with the Llandovery
marine transgressions.

DISCUSSION

A cause o f Late Ordovician--Early Silurian glaciation appears to have been

polar positioning of the continents. The continental glaciation of North and
West Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula was polar according to most palaeo-
continental reconstructions, with ice moving out radially from a point near
the pole. The later apparent peak of the more localised mountain glaciation
in South America seems to be related to the movement of this continent in
turn into the polar position.
The tillites of Europe and the eastern seaboard of North America either
were formed in areas peripheral to the African ice-sheet (not indicated b y
some reconstructions), or were the result o f high mountain glaciers descend-
ing to sea level. On balance the evidence favours the former interpretation.
It is interesting to note that no land appears to have existed over the North
Pole in early Palaeozoic time (Smith et al., 1981), and it is therefore not
surprising that no tillites have been recorded in successions deposited in the
northern hemisphere at that time. However, the polar positioning hypothe-
sis does not explain the abrupt changes in climate represented by the glacial
epochs described above, nor the rapid growth and disintegration of the ice
sheets of the best known epoch, the Tamadjert of Ashglll time, as recorded
by eustatic sea level changes.
Early Palaeozoic glacial activity probably occurred intermittently over an
interval of c. 35 Ma (Caradoc--Wenlock) as the continents of Africa, then
South America, occupied a South Polar position. In this respect, the glacia-
tion is comparable with the Late Cenozoic glacial period which began about
25 Ma ago in the Antarctic. Whether future research will be able to detect
numerous and wide climatic variations related to Milankovitch solar radia-
tion curves as occur in the Quaternary record remains to be seen.
The size of the ice sheet at its peak is not known. The area covered in
Algeria, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Guinea, Sierra Leone was estimated from
286

the present outcrops at 6--8 × 106 km 2. This compares with a b o u t 13.4 ×

106 km 2 for the Pleistocene Laurentide ice sheet, and 12.5 × 106 km 2 of the
present day Antarctic ice sheet (Beuf et al., 1971; Deynoux, 1980). Com-
bined with other areas of Early Palaeozoic glacial activity, one imagines that
the total glacierised area at that time was comparable with that of today. It
almost certainly did not cover an area as great as during the major Pleisto-
cene, Permo-Carboniferous and Varangian (Late Proterozoic) glacial periods.
Like the present day, the bulk of t h e ice occurred over only one of the poles.
Heavily ice-abraded surfaces and glacial valleys in the Sahara are reminiscent
o f those occurring on the Laurentian and Baltic shields. Such features have
developed under a thick, wet-based ice sheet, sliding on its bed, as indeed the
Antarctic ice sheet is doing today. However, D e y n o u x (1980, p. 511) argued
that the Saharan ice-sheet was dry-based, an interpretation based on glacio-
tectonic features and the amount of glacial deposits. Dry-based glaciers re-
quire a frigid climate, conditions which also must have existed for a time to
enable the periglacial features to have formed. Given present day knowledge
of ice-sheet dynamics it should be possible to model the thickness attained
b y the African ice sheet.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to M. D e y n o u x , W. B. Harland and A. G. Smith for helpful

c o m m e n t s on this paper as well as two a n o n y m o u s reviewers. A. G. Smith also
gave valuable assistance in c o m p u t e r plotting o f tillite data on his SUPERMAP
reconstructions.

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