U-Pb constraints on pulsed eruption of the Deccan Traps across the end-Cretaceous mass extinction
- PMID:30792300
- DOI: 10.1126/science.aau2422
U-Pb constraints on pulsed eruption of the Deccan Traps across the end-Cretaceous mass extinction
Abstract
Temporal correlation between some continental flood basalt eruptions and mass extinctions has been proposed to indicate causality, with eruptive volatile release driving environmental degradation and extinction. We tested this model for the Deccan Traps flood basalt province, which, along with the Chicxulub bolide impact, is implicated in the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction approximately 66 million years ago. We estimated Deccan eruption rates with uranium-lead (U-Pb) zircon geochronology and resolved four high-volume eruptive periods. According to this model, maximum eruption rates occurred before and after the K-Pg extinction, with one such pulse initiating tens of thousands of years prior to both the bolide impact and extinction. These findings support extinction models that incorporate both catastrophic events as drivers of environmental deterioration associated with the K-Pg extinction and its aftermath.
Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
Comment in
- Deciphering mass extinction triggers.Burgess S.Burgess S.Science. 2019 Feb 22;363(6429):815-816. doi: 10.1126/science.aaw0473.Science. 2019.PMID:30792290No abstract available.
- Why we can't get over the death of the dinosaurs.[No authors listed][No authors listed]Nature. 2019 Apr;568(7751):143. doi: 10.1038/d41586-019-01096-8.Nature. 2019.PMID:30971844No abstract available.
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