Late Cretaceous records of environmental change suggest that Deccan Traps (DT) volcanism contributed to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (KPB) ecosystem crisis. However, testing this hypothesis requires identification of the KPB in the DT. We constrain the location of the KPB with high-precision argon-40/argon-39 data to be coincident with changes in the magmatic plumbing system. We also found that the DT did not erupt in three discrete large pulses and that >90% of DT volume erupted in <1 million years, with ~75% emplaced post-KPB. Late Cretaceous records of climate change coincide temporally with the eruption of the smallest DT phases, suggesting that either the release of climate-modifying gases is not directly related to eruptive volume or DT volcanism was not the source of Late Cretaceous climate change.

Bolide impact and flood volcanism compete as leading candidates for the cause of terminal-Cretaceous mass extinctions. High-precision (40)Ar/(39)Ar 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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[1] Major and trace element and Sr, Nd, and Pb isotope data for lavas from 12 seamounts along the western (older) 1500 km section of the Louisville Seamount Chain in the southwest Pacific show remarkably uniform compositions over a ∼30-40 Myr period of volcanism. All 56 samples analyzed are alkalic to transitional in composition. Unlike Hawaiian volcanoes, Louisville volcanoes appear not to pass through a sequence of evolutionary stages characterized by older tholeiitic basalts overlain by incompatible element enriched alkalic and silica-undersaturated lavas. The youngest lavas from a given Louisville seamount tend to have the least enriched incompatible element compositions. This unusual chemical evolution may be the result of re-melting of heterogeneous hot spot mantle that was partially depleted during the earlier, age progressive stages. The oldest Louisville seamounts were constructed close to the extinct Osbourn Trough spreading center, located north of the chain, but age-progressive lavas from these older seamounts are not significantly different to lavas from younger seamounts. This may indicate that spreading at this fossil ridge ceased several tens of millions of years before the oldest Louisville seamounts were constructed. Large fracture zones apparently had no significant effects on the composition of Louisville magmatism. However, lavas from the central part of the Louisville Seamount Chain, where volcanoes are smaller and more widely spaced, tend to have more variable and more enriched compositions. We suggest this may reflect smaller degrees of melting resulting from greater lithosphere thickness, and hence a shorter melting column for this section of the Louisville Seamounts.