Title:Evidence for a prolonged Permian-Triassic extinction interval from global marine mercury records
Author(s):Shen, Jun*; Chen, Jiubin; Algeo, Thomas J.; Yuan, Shengliu; Feng, Qinglai; Yu, Jianxin; Zhou, Lian; O'Connell, Brennan; Planavsky, Noah J.
Addresses:, China Univ Geosci, State Key Lab Geol Proc & Mineral Resources, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, Peoples R China.
Source:Nature Communicationsvolume 10, Article number: 1563 (2019)
DOI:
Published:05 April 2019
Abstract:The latest Permian mass extinction, the most devastating biocrisis of the Phanerozoic, has been widely attributed to eruptions of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province, although evidence of a direct link has been scant to date. Here, we measure mercury (Hg), assumed to reflect shifts in volcanic activity, across the Permian-Triassic boundary in ten marine sections across the Northern Hemisphere. Hg concentration peaks close to the Permian-Triassic boundary suggest coupling of biotic extinction and increased volcanic activity. Additionally, Hg isotopic data for a subset of these sections provide evidence for largely atmospheric rather than terrestrial Hg sources, further linking Hg enrichment to increased volcanic activity. Hg peaks in shallow-water sections were nearly synchronous with the end-Permian extinction horizon, while those in deep-water sections occurred tens of thousands of years before the main extinction, possibly supporting a globally diachronous biotic turnover and protracted mass extinction event.
Full Text from Publisher:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09620-0
Evidence for a prolonged Permian–Triassic extinction interval from global marine mercury records
