Paleohydraulics of cyclonic storm deposits suggest that the equatorial climate of Earth in the Pennsylvanian was not cold

Abstract Earth has experienced extreme past climates, and recent studies posit a controversial hypothesis that a cold global climate, including tropical low-altitude glaciation, existed in the Pennsylvanian Period. Paleohydraulic analysis of storm-generated, hummocky bedforms in shallow marine Pennsylvanian deposits of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains of Pangea allows for reconstruction of wave parameters, which reflect paleoclimate because physical marine conditions and ocean–atmospheric linkages are highly latitude- and temperature-dependent. The results indicate large waves and gale to hurricane strength winds of cyclonic storms, driven by high Coriolis vorticity and high sea-surface temperatures. These refute both published extremely low paleolatitude (