Thermal erosion of cratonic lithosphere as a potential trigger for mass-extinction

Article Article scientifique Article Thermal erosion of cratonic lithosphere as a potential trigger for mass-extinction eng 2016 author Guex Jean author Pilet Sebastien 132970 author Muntener Othmar 643729 author Bartolini Annachiara author Spangenberg Jorge Enrique 28213 author Schoene Blair author Sell Bryan 716969 author Schaltegger Urs 0000-0003-4404-8607 134356 23168 10.1038/srep23168 2045-2322 http://www.nature.com/articles/srep23168 The temporal coincidence between large igneous provinces (LIPs) and mass extinctions has led many to pose a causal relationship between the two. However, there is still no consensus on a mechanistic model that explains how magmatism leads to the turnover of terrestrial and marine plants, invertebrates and vertebrates. Here we present a synthesis of ammonite biostratigraphy, isotopic data and high precision U-Pb zircon dates from the Triassic-Jurassic (T-J) and Pliensbachian-Toarcian (Pl-To) boundaries demonstrating that these biotic crises are both associated with rapid change from an initial cool period to greenhouse conditions. We explain these transitions as a result of changing gas species emitted during the progressive thermal erosion of cratonic lithosphere by plume activity or internal heating of the lithosphere. Our petrological model for LIP magmatism argues that initial gas emission was dominated by sulfur liberated from sulfide-bearing cratonic lithosphere before CO2 became the dominant gas. This model offers an explanation of why LIPs erupted through oceanic lithosphere are not associated with climatic and biotic crises comparable to LIPs emitted through cratonic lithosphere. Dewey 550 Swiss National Science Foundation Metasomatism of the oceanic lithosphere and implications for intra-plate magmatism 140494 CH Projects Swiss National Science Foundation Crustal growth processes: an integrated field and geochemical approach 135511 CH Projects Swiss National Science Foundation Magmatic processes in the continental crust: from source variations to emplacement mechanisms 156421 CH Projects Swiss National Science Foundation Establishing globally valid tie points for intercalibration of biochronologic and radioisotopic timescales between the latest Permian and middle Jurassic using high-precision U-Pb dating of volcanic ash beds 137630 CH Projects 42 Département des sciences de la Terre 154 false 663 Isotope Geochemistry, Geochronology and Thermochronology Scientific reports 6 24927ca1-17f2-4b98-90d5-3e79cd774945 Article (Published version) Public 2016 Guex SciRep.pdf 1146318 application/pdf openAccess Faculté des sciences / Section des sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement / Département des sciences de la Terre

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Thermal erosion of cratonic lithosphere as a potential trigger for mass-extinction	Scientific reports			2016	643	359

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Pilet, Sebastien