Mercury Spikes Indicate a Volcanic Trigger for the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction Event: An Example from a Deep Shelf of the Peri-Baltic Region

Smolarek-Lach, Justyna; Marynowski, Leszek; Trela, Wiesław; Wignall, Paul B.

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-39333-9

Cited by 37 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 58 publications

(72 reference statements)

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“…Samples were derivatised with MTBSTFA dissolved in super-dehydrated DCM, heated at 50 °C for 1 h, and analysed right after derivatisation. After derivatisation, tert-butyl-dimethylsilyl derivatives of maleimides were obtained (see also 40 and 41 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coincidence of photic zone euxinia and impoverishment of arthropods in the aftermath of the Frasnian-Famennian biotic crisis

Broda

Marynowski

Rakociński

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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The lowermost Famennian deposits of the Kowala quarry (Holy Cross Mountains, Poland) are becoming famous for their rich fossil content such as their abundant phosphatized arthropod remains (mostly thylacocephalans). Here, for the first time, palaeontological and geochemical data were integrated to document abundance and diversity patterns in the context of palaeoenvironmental changes. During deposition, the generally oxic to suboxic conditions were interrupted at least twice by the onset of photic zone euxinia (PZE). Previously, PZE was considered as essential in preserving phosphatised fossils from, e.g., the famous Gogo Formation, Australia. Here, we show, however, that during PZE, the abundance of arthropods drastically dropped. The phosphorous content during PZE was also very low in comparison to that from oxic-suboxic intervals where arthropods are the most abundant. As phosphorous is essential for phosphatisation but also tends to flux off the sediment during bottom water anoxia, we propose that the PZE in such a case does not promote the fossilisation of the arthropods but instead leads to their impoverishment and non-preservation. Thus, the PZE conditions with anoxic bottom waters cannot be presumed as universal for exceptional fossil preservation by phosphatisation, and caution must be paid when interpreting the fossil abundance on the background of redox conditions.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coincidence of photic zone euxinia and impoverishment of arthropods in the aftermath of the Frasnian-Famennian biotic crisis

Broda

Marynowski

Rakociński

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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“…4), but this study is the first to link Hg enrichments directly to both extinction pulses. The largest known Hg anomalies occur at Dob's Linn (550 ppb) and Poland (530 ppb; Smolarek-Lach et al, 2019;Fig. 4), perhaps suggesting that these were closest to the site of volcanism.…”

Section: Extinction Scenariomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The link to cooling makes the LOME an outlier amongst the "Big Five": the other four are associated with large igneous province (LIP) volcanism and global warming (Bond and Wignall, 2014;Bond and Grasby, 2017). The ultimate driver of the LOME is unclear, but mercury (Hg) spikes (a volcanism proxy; see Grasby et al, 2019) in Ordovician-Silurian strata in Nevada (USA), South China, and Poland implicate a hithertoundiscovered (or long-subducted) LIP (Gong et al, 2017;Jones et al, 2017;Smolarek-Lach et al, 2019). The timing of Hg-loading eventsalbeit based on sparse records-has led to different LIP-extinction models.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gong et al (2017) implicated the more geologically rapid effects of volcanism, such as metal toxicity, warming, ocean acidification, and anoxia. Confusingly, Katian to Hirnantian strata of Poland contain multiple Hg/TOC spikes (to 400-500 ppb/%), but none coincide with extinctions, and the greatest anomaly is mid-Katian, before the first LOME pulse (Smolarek-Lach et al, 2019). Discounting the LIP-LOME hypothesis, Shen et al (2019) concluded that Hg in marine strata in South China is sulfide hosted and nonvolcanic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Late Ordovician mass extinction caused by volcanism, warming, and anoxia, not cooling and glaciation

Bond

Grasby

2020

Geology

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The Ordovician saw major diversification in marine life abruptly terminated by the Late Ordovician mass extinction (LOME). Around 85% of species were eliminated in two pulses 1 m.y. apart. The first pulse, in the basal Hirnantian, has been linked to cooling and Gondwanan glaciation. The second pulse, later in the Hirnantian, is attributed to warming and anoxia. Previously reported mercury (Hg) spikes in Nevada (USA), South China, and Poland implicate an unknown large igneous province (LIP) in the crisis, but the timing of Hg loading has led to different interpretations of the LIP-extinction scenario in which volcanism causes cooling, warming, or both. We report close correspondence between Hg, Mo, and U anomalies, declines in enrichment factors of productivity proxies, and the two LOME pulses at the Ordovician-Silurian boundary stratotype (Dob’s Linn, Scotland). These support an extinction scenario in which volcanogenic greenhouse gases caused warming around the Katian-Hirnantian boundary that led to expansion of a preexisting deepwater oxygen minimum zone, productivity collapse, and the first LOME pulse. Renewed volcanism in the Hirnantian stimulated further warming and anoxia and the second LOME pulse. Rather than being the odd-one-out of the “Big Five” extinctions with origins in cooling, the LOME is similar to the others in being caused by volcanism, warming, and anoxia.

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“…Recent studies suggest that intense volcanic activity may have been the cause of the changes (e.g. Smolarek-Lach et al 2019), providing a direct kill mechanism for some groups of organisms and dramatic environmental change, translated into widespread habitat destruction in parts of the world's oceans. This interval has been intensively studied over the years, investigating the many Ordovician-Silurian boundary sections for the definition and correlation of Global Boundary Stratotype and Section Point for the base of the Silurian System (Llandovery Series, Rhuddanian Stage).…”

Section: And the Earlymentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Palaeozoic diversifications and extinctions in the marine biosphere: a continuum of change

2019

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A review of biodiversity curves of marine organisms indicates that, despite fluctuations in amplitude (some large), a large-scale, long-term radiation of life took place during the early Palaeozoic Era; it was aggregated by a succession of more discrete and regionalized radiations across geographies and within phylogenies. This major biodiversification within the marine biosphere started during late Precambrian time and was only finally interrupted in the Devonian Period. It includes both the Cambrian Explosion and the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. The establishment of modern marine ecosystems took place during a continuous chronology of the successive establishment of organisms and their ecological communities, developed during the ‘Cambrian substrate revolution’, the ‘Ordovician plankton revolution’, the ‘Ordovician substrate revolution’, the ‘Ordovician bioerosion revolution’ and the ‘Devonian nekton revolution’. At smaller scales, different regional but important radiations can be recognized geographically and some of them have been identified and named (e.g. those associated with the ‘Richmondian Invasion’ during Late Ordovician time in Laurentia and the contemporaneous ‘Boda event’ in parts of Europe and North Africa), in particular from areas that were in or moved towards lower latitudes, allowing high levels of speciation on epicontintental seas during these intervals. The datasets remain incomplete for many other geographical areas, but also for particular time intervals (e.g. during the late Cambrian ‘Furongian Gap’). The early Palaeozoic biodiversification therefore appears to be a long-term process, modulated by bursts in significant diversity and intervals of inadequate data, where its progressive character will become increasingly clearer with the availability of more complete datasets, with better global coverage and more advanced analytical techniques.

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Mercury Spikes Indicate a Volcanic Trigger for the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction Event: An Example from a Deep Shelf of the Peri-Baltic Region

Cited by 37 publications

References 58 publications

Coincidence of photic zone euxinia and impoverishment of arthropods in the aftermath of the Frasnian-Famennian biotic crisis

Coincidence of photic zone euxinia and impoverishment of arthropods in the aftermath of the Frasnian-Famennian biotic crisis

Late Ordovician mass extinction caused by volcanism, warming, and anoxia, not cooling and glaciation

Early Palaeozoic diversifications and extinctions in the marine biosphere: a continuum of change

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