State shift in Deccan volcanism at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, possibly induced by impact
Making an impact in more ways than one
Massive eruptions formed the Deccan Traps flood basalts in India at around the same time as the mass extinction event 65 million years ago. Renneet al. precisely dated the massive volcanic field, which suggests a simultaneous increase in volcanism associated with the famous Chicxulub impact. Strong ecologic recovery may have been impossible until the volcanism slowed down 500,000 years later.
Science, this issue p.76
Abstract
Bolide impact and flood volcanism compete as leading candidates for the cause of terminal-Cretaceous mass extinctions. High-precision40Ar/39Ar data indicate that these two mechanisms may be genetically related, and neither can be considered in isolation. The existing Deccan Traps magmatic system underwent a state shift approximately coincident with the Chicxulub impact and the terminal-Cretaceous mass extinctions, after which ~70% of the Traps' total volume was extruded in more massive and more episodic eruptions. Initiation of this new regime occurred within ~50,000 years of the impact, which is consistent with transient effects of impact-induced seismic energy. Postextinction recovery of marine ecosystems was probably suppressed until after the accelerated volcanism waned.
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Materials and Methods
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Table S1
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Published In
Science
Volume350 |Issue6256
2 October 2015
2 October 2015
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Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Received: 8 June 2015
Accepted: 26 August 2015
Published in print: 2 October 2015
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Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation and by the Esper S. Larsen Fund of the University of California–Berkeley. C.J.S. was supported by a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. L.V.’s participation was supported by NSF grant EAR-1250440. We thank W. Alvarez, S. Finnegan, C. Guns, R. Ickert, M. Manga, C. Marshall, A. Marzoli, R. Mundil, and H. Sheth for discussion; T. Becker and A. Jaouni for laboratory assistance; and H. Sheth for field assistance. Data are available in the supplementary materials.
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Affiliations
Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA.
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California–Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Courtney J.Sprain
Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA.
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California–Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Mark A.Richards
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California–Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
StephenSelf
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California–Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
LoÿcVanderkluysen
Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
KanchanPande
Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400 076, India.
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