Volcanism, Mass Extinction, and Carbon Isotope Fluctuations in the Middle Permian of China

Abstract

The 260-million-year-old Emeishan volcanic province of southwest China overlies and is interbedded with Middle Permian carbonates that contain a record of the Guadalupian mass extinction. Sections in the region thus provide an opportunity to directly monitor the relative timing of extinction and volcanism within the same locations. These show that the onset of volcanism was marked by both large phreatomagmatic eruptions and extinctions amongst fusulinacean foraminifers and calcareous algae. The temporal coincidence of these two phenomena supports the idea of a cause-and-effect relationship. The crisis predates the onset of a major negative carbon isotope excursion that points to subsequent severe disturbance of the ocean-atmosphere carbon cycle.

Reply to comment on ‘Paleokarst on the top of the Maokou Formation: further evidence for domal crustal uplift prior to the Emeishan flood volcanism’ by Bin He, Yi-Gang Xu, Jun-Peng Guan & Yu-Ting Zhong, Lithos 119 1–9, 2010

“…4b of He et al, 2006). As noted by Wignall et al (2009a) in their study of the Xiongjiachang section, this rifting and subsidence is consistent with modeling results (D'Acremont et al 2003;Griffiths and Campbell 1990).…”

High‐resolution Lopingian (Late Permian) timescale of South China

“…This carbon isotope excursion has been largely confirmed by subsequent studies . Wignall et al (2009a) show an isotopic negative excursion somewhat lower in the Jinogondolella prexuanhanensis-J. xuanhanensis interval of the Xiongjiachang Section of Guizhou Province of South China, but we are uncertain whether this is a separate lower excursion or whether there is another reason for this discrepancy.…”

“…The Emeishan basalt is immediately below the Guadalupian-Lopingian boundary (GLB). Zhou et al (2002) presented age data that suggest a temporal link between the Emeishan volcanism and the preLopingian crisis that was further elaborated by Wignall et al (2009a) recently. U-Pb zircon SHRIMP ages from the Xinjie intrusion of the main phase of the Emeishan flood basalt yield an age of 259 AE 3 Ma (Zhou et al, 2002).…”

“…During the last decade, the latest Permian and pre-Lopingian mass extinctions have become two of the most extensively studied subjects (e.g. Wignall and Hallam, 1992;Wignall and Twitchett, 1996;Bowring et al, 1998;Jin et al, 2000a;Shen and Shi, 2002;Lehrmann et al, 2003;Mundil et al, 2004;Twitchett et al, 2004;Grice et al, 2005;Isozaki et al, 2007a;Yin et al, 2007;Cao et al, 2009;Chen et al, 2009a;Wignall et al, 2009a). Debate has centred on whether there is a longlived inter-related event between the latest Changhsingian extinction and the pre-Lopingian crisis (Isozaki et al, 2007b;Yin et al, 2007;Bottjer et al, 2008) or two distinct extinctions including a short catastrophic latest Changhsingian extinction (Jin et al, 2000a;Rampino et al, 2000;Becker et al, 2001) unrelated to the end-Guadalupian extinction Shi, 1996, 2002;Shi et al, 1999;Wang and Sugiyama, 2000).…”

Mantle origin of the Emeishan large igneous province (South China) from the analysis of residual gravity anomalies

“…In recent years, the Emeishan LIP has attracted the attention of the scientific community because of its possible synchrony with the eruption of the end-Permian mass extinction (Ali et al, 2002;Chung and Jahn, 1995;Chung et al, 1998;Lo et al, 2002;Shellnutt, 2013;Wignall et al, 2009;Wu and Zhang, 2012).…”