The character and relative stratigraphic position of paleoclimatic indicators in the Upper Mississippian Mauch Chunk Group of southern West Virginia suggest a link between eustasy and patterns of global- to continental-scale climatic circulation. Facies analysis in outcrop and regional correlation on wireline logs reveal a stratigraphic stacking pattern in dominantly terrestrial facies that reflects periodic, fourth-order (~400 ka) cycles of relative sea-level change. Foreland basin fill that developed over ~10 million years consists of a series of unconformity-bounded sequences comprised of transgressive and highstand systems tracts deposits. Transgressive systems tract deposits consist of: 1) basal conglomeratic fluvial facies that overlie sequence boundaries in erosional contact with leached paleosols or thin coals; and 2) fining-upward heterolithic deposits with thin coals. Maximum flooding is recorded by marine shale units, and overlying highstand systems tract deposits consist of progradational deltaic facies and pedogenically altered fluvial mudstones and sandstones.

The leached paleosols and coals that lie immediately below sequence boundaries and within the heterolithic successions are suggestive of humid climatic conditions during eustatic lowstand/early transgression. In contrast, rhythmic laminae bundling in overlying deltaic facies reveals distinct annual cycles of deposition related to seasonal climatic conditions during early highstands. Furthermore, fluvial deposits that developed during mid- to late highstands contain vertic to calcic paleosols, salt casts, and lacustrine dolomites that indicate a strongly seasonal, semi-arid climate dominated by monsoonal circulation. The systematic paleoclimatic change with respect to sequence development likely reflects cyclothem-scale shifts between humid eustatic lowstands and semi-arid highstands related to early Gondwanan glacial episodes.