Ludfordian

In the geologic timescale, the Ludfordian is the age of the Ludlow epoch of the Silurian period of the Paleozoic era of the Phanerozoic eon that occurred between 425.6 ± 0.9Ma and 423. ± 2.3 Ma . The Ludfordian age succeeds the Gorstian age and precedes the Pridoli epoch. It is named for the village of Ludford in Shropshire, England.

The Lau event is a rapid pulse of cooling during the Ludfordian, about 424 million years ago; it is identified by a pulse of extinctions and oceanic changes. It is one of the series of fast sea-level and excursions in oxygen isotope ratios that signal fast switches between warm and cold climate states, characteristic of the Silurian climatic instability. The Lau Event occurred during an extended period of elevated seawater saturation state, explained by reservoirs of the planet's fresh water being locked up in massive polar ice caps. The sudden reappearance in normally saline marine environments of stromatolites and a mass occurrence of oncoids during the event suggested that minor extinction events like the Lau Event also resulted in periods of reduced grazing pressures on surviving "disaster biota", which can be compared to the aftermath of the more catastrophic end-Ordovician and end-Permian mass extinctions.

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