Fires sweep across the Mid-Cretaceous landscapes of Nova Scotia

Abstract

Fire may be an important element in many post-Devonian terrestrial environments. Data has come predominantly from fossil charcoal (fusain) which may be preserved in numerous depositional environments. Fire is known to be an important element in several Cretaceous ecosystems,such as in the Wealden of the Isle of Wight, but interpretations concerning the frequency and extent of fire systems have proved difficult. In only a very few cases in the Carboniferous have charcoal horizons been traced laterally and often this is only at one stratigraphic level. New data from the Cretaceous of Nova Scotia, Canada, offers the possibility of unravelling some of these Cretaceous fire systems for the first time.