A memory of Paleozoic to Quaternary Greenhouse climates recorded in Southern African regolith
Abstract
In this article, we explore the potential of iron-rich duricrust regoliths from old erosional anorogenic surfaces to record clues of the long-term continental paleoclimatic evolution. We coupled geochemical, mineralogical and geochronological analyses on iron oxides and oxyhydroxides (i.e. hematite and goethite) from iron-rich duricrusts collected on the ~2000 m elevation pre-glacial surface of Nyika, in Malawi, a surface isolated since at least the Permian. Here we show that the studied samples are the remnants of dismantled tropical regoliths and contain clasts with complex mineralogical, geochemical and (U-Th)/He geochronological characteristics. The iron oxides and oxyhydroxides present continuous ages range from 397 ± 40 Ma to <1 Ma that correlate with clear geochemical trends. It allows to extract three main periods of iron oxides and oxyhydroxides crystallization during the Devonian, Late Cretaceous and Quaternary. Mixing of minerals generations reveals here some of the main periods of warm and wet climate that affected the Southeastern African continent during the last 400 Myr.
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BibTeX
@article{mathian2026memory,
title = {{A memory of Paleozoic to Quaternary Greenhouse climates recorded in Southern African regolith}},
author = {Maximilien Mathian and Guillaume Baby and Pierre Dietrich and François Guillocheau and Charlotte Fillon and Patrick Rafiki Chindandali and Rosella Pinna-Jamme and Frédéric Haurine and Ludovic Delbes and Benoît Baptiste and Cécile Quantin and Cécile Gautheron},
journal = {Communications Earth \& Environment},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s43247-026-04066-x},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05820636v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - A memory of Paleozoic to Quaternary Greenhouse climates recorded in Southern African regolith
AU - Maximilien Mathian
AU - Guillaume Baby
AU - Pierre Dietrich
AU - François Guillocheau
AU - Charlotte Fillon
AU - Patrick Rafiki Chindandali
AU - Rosella Pinna-Jamme
AU - Frédéric Haurine
AU - Ludovic Delbes
AU - Benoît Baptiste
AU - Cécile Quantin
AU - Cécile Gautheron
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/20
JO - Communications Earth & Environment
DO - 10.1038/s43247-026-04066-x
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05820636v1
AB - In this article, we explore the potential of iron-rich duricrust regoliths from old erosional anorogenic surfaces to record clues of the long-term continental paleoclimatic evolution. We coupled geochemical, mineralogical and geochronological analyses on iron oxides and oxyhydroxides (i.e. hematite and goethite) from iron-rich duricrusts collected on the ~2000 m elevation pre-glacial surface of Nyika, in Malawi, a surface isolated since at least the Permian. Here we show that the studied samples are the remnants of dismantled tropical regoliths and contain clasts with complex mineralogical, geochemical and (U-Th)/He geochronological characteristics. The iron oxides and oxyhydroxides present continuous ages range from 397 ± 40 Ma to <1 Ma that correlate with clear geochemical trends. It allows to extract three main periods of iron oxides and oxyhydroxides crystallization during the Devonian, Late Cretaceous and Quaternary. Mixing of minerals generations reveals here some of the main periods of warm and wet climate that affected the Southeastern African continent during the last 400 Myr.
SN - 2662-4435
ER -