Systemic swings in end-Permian climate from Siberian Traps carbon and sulfur outgassing

Abstract

Siberian Traps flood basalt magmatism coincided with the end-Permian mass extinction approximately 252 million years ago. Proposed links between magmatism and ecological catastrophe include global warming, global cooling, ozone depletion, and changes in ocean chemistry. However, the critical combinations of environmental changes responsible for global mass extinction are undetermined. In particular, the combined and competing climate effects of sulfur and carbon outgassing remain to be quantified. Here we present results from global climate model simulations of flood basalt outgassing that account for sulfur chemistry and aerosol microphysics with coupled atmosphere and ocean circulation. We consider the effects of sulfur and carbon in isolation and in tandem. We find that coupling with the ocean strongly influences the climate response to flood basaltscale outgassing. We suggest that sulfur and carbon emissions from the Siberian Traps combined to generate systemic swings in temperature, ocean circulation, and hydrology

Intensifying aeolian activity following the end‐Permian mass extinction: Evidence from the Late Permian–Early Triassic terrestrial sedimentary record of the Ordos Basin, North China

“…The onset of the mass extinction around the PTB coincided with an abrupt change in emplacement style of the contemporaneous Siberian LIP (Burgess et al, 2017), which may have been an effective trigger (Shen et al, 2019a,b). The associated emissions of greenhouse gases caused warming of land and oceans, stagnation and ocean floor anoxia, associated with acid rain (sulphur volatiles), that stripped the landscape of plants and soils and acidified the oceans (Benton & Twitchett, 2003;Huey & Ward, 2005;Algeo et al, 2011;Burgess et al, 2017;Black et al, 2018). Massive soil erosion may have followed the destruction of land vegetation by volcanogenic disturbance of atmospheric chemistry (acid rain), increasing aridity and intensity in weathering.…”

“…The widely accepted killing model involves increased mass wasting (Newell et al, 1999;Ward et al, 2000;Sephton et al, 2005;Algeo & Twitchett, 2010) and aridity in climate and the input of greenhouse gases (Benton & Twitchett, 2003;Huey & Ward, 2005;Algeo et al, 2011;Benton & Newell, 2014;Xu et al, 2017a,b) resulting from massive volcanic eruptions in Siberia (Sanei et al, 2012;Burgess et al, 2017;Shen et al, 2019a,b). The coincidence of the mass extinction with synchronous extensive volcanic emplacement of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province (LIP) which generated large volumes of sulphate aerosols and carbon dioxide within a short period of time across the PTB indicates that volcanism was the most important trigger (Reichow et al, 2009;Burgess et al, 2017;Black et al, 2018;Shen et al, 2019a,b).…”

Magmatic carbon outgassing and uptake of CO2 by alkaline waters

“…A large carbon isotopic excursion and associated mass extinction at the end of the Permian has been linked to the outpouring of 7-15 million km 3 basalt (Saunders 2005;Reichow et al 2009;Black et al 2012;Black and Gibson 2019) as well as the metamorphic devolatilization (Svensen et al 2009) and combustion (Ogden and Sleep 2012) of buried coal by sills. This event may have released 20 000 to 30 000 Pg C over as long as 10 5 years, but probably in discrete pulses over much shorter timescales (Black et al 2018). The fastest large carbon release of the Cenozoic (past 66 Myr) occurred at the onset of the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (~56 Myr ago) (Zachos et al 2005), when 2500 to 4500 Pg carbon was emitted to the oceanatmosphere system over up to 4000 yr (Bowen et al 2015;Zeebe et al 2016).…”

Carbonatites as a record of the carbon isotope composition of large igneous province outgassing

“…Similarly, light mantle carbon, perhaps mobilized from the mantle lithosphere during emplacement of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, has been hypothesized to explain carbon isotope records during the end-Triassic (Paris et al, 2012). Alternative hypotheses to explain carbon isotope excursions linked to volcanism involve release of light carbon from metamorphism of carbon-bearing sedimentary rocks or from clathrate dissociation triggered by volcanogenic warming (Black et al, 2018;Gutjahr et al, 2017;Heimdal et al, 2018;Svensen et al, 2009). Determining the carbon isotope composition of large igneous province outgassing is thus central to understanding the source of the carbon that caused carbon isotope excursions and that may have played a key role in perturbing ecosystems during some emplacement of some LIPs.…”