Publication Date:
2013-03-23
Description:
The end-Triassic extinction is characterized by major losses in both terrestrial and marine diversity, setting the stage for dinosaurs to dominate Earth for the next 136 million years. Despite the approximate coincidence between this extinction and flood basalt volcanism, existing geochronologic dates have insufficient resolution to confirm eruptive rates required to induce major climate perturbations. Here, we present new zircon uranium-lead (U-Pb) geochronologic constraints on the age and duration of flood basalt volcanism within the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province. This chronology demonstrates synchroneity between the earliest volcanism and extinction, tests and corroborates the existing astrochronologic time scale, and shows that the release of magma and associated atmospheric flux occurred in four pulses over about 600,000 years, indicating expansive volcanism even as the biologic recovery was under way.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Blackburn, Terrence J -- Olsen, Paul E -- Bowring, Samuel A -- McLean, Noah M -- Kent, Dennis V -- Puffer, John -- McHone, Greg -- Rasbury, E Troy -- Et-Touhami, Mohammed -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2013 May 24;340(6135):941-5. doi: 10.1126/science.1234204. Epub 2013 Mar 21.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. tblackburn@ciw.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23519213" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Atlantic Ocean
;
*Climate Change
;
*Earth (Planet)
;
*Lead
;
*Silicates
;
Time Factors
;
*Uranium
;
*Volcanic Eruptions
;
*Zirconium
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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