Abstract
New high-precision U/Pb geochronology from volcanic ashes shows that the Triassic-Jurassic boundary and end-Triassic biological crisis from two independent marine stratigraphic sections correlate with the onset of terrestrial flood volcanism in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province to <150 ka. This narrows the correlation between volcanism and mass extinction by an order of magnitude for any such catastrophe in Earth history. We also show that a concomitant drop and rise in sea level and negative δ13C spike in the very latest Triassic occurred locally in <290 ka. Such rapid sea-level fluctuations on a global scale require that global cooling and glaciation were closely associated with the end-Triassic extinction and potentially driven by Central Atlantic Magmatic Province volcanism.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 387-390 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Geology |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 2010 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Geology