Correlating the end-Triassic mass extinction and flood basalt volcanism at the 100 ka level

Blair Schoene, Jean Guex, Annachiara Bartolini, Urs Schaltegger, Terrence J. Blackburn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

349 Scopus citations

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 languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)387-390
Number of pages4
JournalGeology
Volume38
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2010
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Geology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Correlating the end-Triassic mass extinction and flood basalt volcanism at the 100 ka level'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this