T73 Impacts of Volcanism on Global Climate and Oceans—Drivers of Mass Extinctions through the Phanerozoic I

Monday, 11 October 2021
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Portland Ballroom 255 (Hybrid Room)

QUANTIFYING CO2 EMISSION AND SEQUESTRATION ACROSS THE END-PERMIAN MASS EXTINCTION

Paper number: T73-5
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:55 AM – 9:10 AM

Authors

  • Ying Cui Presenting Author
    Montclair State University: Department of Earth and Environmental Studies, Montclair, NJ
  • Shuzhong Shen
    Nanjing University, Nanjing
  • Feifei Zhang
    Nanjing, NJ
  • Wenqian Wang
    Nanjing University, Nanjing
  • Hua Zhang
    Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing

Abstract

The extensive volcanic eruption of the Siberian Traps large igneous province (STLIP) and the felsic volcanic activity in southwest China are thought to be responsible for the end-Permian mass extinction (EPME), during which the temperature rose by ~10 oC1, surface ocean pH decreased by one unit2, and large area of the seafloor became anoxic3. These environmental deteriorations are likely caused by massive amount of CO2 emissions and associated carbon cycle feedbacks, with important implications for the ongoing climate change. The CO2 emission patterns and their links to the ST LIP, however, are still poorly understood. Here we use the known degassing history of the ST LIP from the literature to force an Earth system model of intermediate complexity to reconstruct the carbon cycle dynamics during the EPME and compare the model output to an exceptionally high-resolution geochemical record from South China. CO2 emission and sequestration rates were quantified based on the observed patterns of global carbon isotopes, sea surface temperature, pH, and anoxic areas.

1 Joachimski, M. M. et al. Climate warming in the latest Permian and the Permian–Triassic mass extinction. Geology 40, 195-198, doi:10.1130/g32707.1 (2012).

2 Jurikova, H. et al. Permian–Triassic mass extinction pulses driven by major marine carbon cycle perturbations. Nature Geoscience, doi:10.1038/s41561-020-00646-4 (2020).

3 Zhang, F. et al. Congruent Permian-Triassic δ238U records at Panthalassic and Tethyan sites: Confirmation of global-oceanic anoxia and validation of the U-isotope paleoredox proxy. Geology 46, 327-330, doi:https://doi.org/10.1130/G39695.1(2018).

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 53, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2021AM-365840

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