cyclothem, complex, repetitive stratigraphic succession of marine and nonmarine strata that are indicative of cyclic depositional regimes. Ideal cyclothem successions are rare, and reconstructions of generalized sequences result from the study of examples in which typical beds of limestone, clastic sediments, or coal seams may be missing.
Different sedimentary rocks are often stacked on top of one another in recognizable patterns that suggest an orderliness in formation. In particular, coal-bearing sequences not only show a repetition of coal seams, through sometimes hundreds of metres, but also other rocks in a more or less regular order. The coal seam is underlain by a seat-earth (underclay). Above the coal, a limestone or a claystone (shale or mudstone) with marine shells is often found. The marine shells disappear in the succeeding shales, to be replaced occasionally by nonmarine bivalves. Before another seat-earth and coal appears, a siltstone or a sandstone or both may be present.
In Great Britain this type of cycle was described in the 1830s, and some Carboniferous sequences (those about 359 million to 299 million years old) may be conveniently described as composed of repetitions of the cycle limestone–shale–siltstone–sandstone–seat-earth–coal, in which the coal is taken to define the point at which the sequence is repeated. A similar sequence was recognized in the United States in which an erosional break below the sandstone was identified and the sandstone was recognized as the significant repeated feature initiating the new cycle.
In both cases the cycle is defined in terms of recurring rock types. The rocks and fossils suggest alternating open-sea (the limestone and shales with marine shells) and terrestrial conditions (the coal). Processes forming the sediments were oscillatory or cyclic. Furthermore, this oscillation took place through time. In many discussions of the subject the term cycle was used indiscriminately for the processes, the time involved (such as the periodicity of oscillations), and the sediments. The potential confusion in this loose nomenclature led American geologist J.M. Weller to coin the term cyclothem to describe a series of beds deposited during a single sedimentary cycle, such as the deposits of layers during the Pennsylvanian period (or Late Carboniferous epoch, roughly 318 million to 299 million years ago). Cyclothem refers to the rocks themselves; the term cycle might then be reserved for the processes or the time involved in forming a cyclothem, or both.
Weller had in mind the type of sequence described above. It therefore seems valid to use the term cyclothem to refer to similar sequences in the Carboniferous period in Europe and elsewhere. North American and European cyclothems are acknowledged as representing successive phases of delta out-building interspersed with marine incursions. This being so, the term cyclothem may now be extended to any sequence of sedimentary rocks that is repeated in vertical sequence. For example, Devonian rocks in Great Britain are often composed of the repeated sequence conglomerate-sandstone-siltstone-muddy siltstone with nodular carbonate. These are interpreted as having been formed by a river meandering across its floodplain. Each sequence has been called a cyclothem, as has a very different sequence of shale or marl and limestones in the Jurassic period (200 million to 146 million years ago) of Europe.
During the first half of the 20th century the identification of the repetitive sequence was largely a matter of subjective judgment. Since the 1960s statistical treatment of the data has led to greater precision in defining the probability that any one rock unit will occur in its place in the sequence.
Pennsylvanian cyclothems vary considerably in thickness but tend to be about 10 m (32 feet) thick. The term, when applied to thinner, simple alterations of shale-limestone or sandstone-siltstone, has been referred to as minor. On the other hand, thicker sequences have been called megacyclothems. Sometimes this simply denotes a cyclothem of an order of size thicker than normal. Some authors use the term to describe a group of cyclothems that show some distinctive character followed by another group that have some other characteristics—i.e., one group of cyclothems with many limestone bands may be followed by another with few limestones. Together these constitute a cycle of cyclothems, or a megacyclothem. Groups of megacyclothems with some distinctive features have been called a hypercyclothem. Rock units, measuring several kilometres in thickness and spanning entire geologic systems, have been referred to as magnacycles. These larger units are of doubtful validity and restricted utility.
The main problem with regard to Pennsylvanian and Carboniferous cyclothems is to explain sea extensions (transgressions) over a delta plain in an area that is undergoing progressive subsidence. One tectonic mechanism invokes jerky subsidence of the basin of sedimentation. Marine incursions would take place after sudden sinkings. A rise in sea level and incursion could also be caused by the growth of oceanic ridges. Equally, transgressions of the sea might be due to climatic changes, which, for example, might cause the periodic melting of polar icecaps; or delta out-building might be active during climatic periods of rapid debris supply to the basin, followed by marine transgressions during dry periods with little sediment supply. The mechanisms that have received most recent support are sedimentological. In these, delta out-building is thought to be ended by a switch in the locus of deposition when the river finds a shorter route to the sea. The starved delta-lobe, still subject to continuous regional subsidence, is then flooded by the sea to begin a new cyclothem. Later, the locus of deposition switches back to the former area, sedimentation returns, and a cyclothem is completed by renewed out-building.