Abstract
Abstract Untangling the timing of the environmental effects of Deccan volcanism with respect to the Chicxulub impact is instrumental to fully assessing the contributions of both to climate change over the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (KPB) interval. Despite recent improvements in radiometric age calibrations, the accuracy of age constraints and correlations is insufficient to resolve the exact mechanisms leading to environmental and climate change in the 1 m.y. across the KPB. We present new high-resolution planktic foraminiferal, geochemical, and geophysical data from the Zumaia section (Spain), calibrated to an updated orbitally tuned age model. We provide a revised chronology for the major carbon isotope excursions (CIEs) and planktic foraminiferal events and test temporal relationships with different models of the eruptive phases of the Deccan Traps. Our data show that the major CIEs near the KPB, i.e., the late Maastrichtian warming event (66.25–66.10 Ma) and the Dan-C2 event (65.8–65.7 Ma), are synchronous with the last and the first 405 k.y. eccentricity maximum of the Maastrichtian and the Danian, respectively, and that the minor Lower C29n event (65.48–65.41 Ma) is well constrained to a short eccentricity maximum. Conversely, we obtained evidence of abrupt environmental change likely related to Deccan volcanism at ca. 65.9 Ma, based on a bloom of opportunistic triserial guembelitriids (Chiloguembelitria). The orbital, isotopic, and paleobiological temporal relationships with Deccan volcanism established here provide new insights into the role of Deccan volcanism in climate and environmental change in the 1 m.y. across the KPB.
Highlights
The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (KPB)is one of the best-documented intervals in Earth’s history and yet remains a subject of intensive research (Hull et al, 2020)
The planktic foraminiferal assemblages remained relatively stable at Zumaia during the last ∼400 k.y. of the late Maastrichtian (Fig. S4), with only a minor and transient assemblage reorganization related to an increase in Heterohelix abundance (∼50% to 65%–80%) from 11 to 7.5 m below the KPB (∼250–150 k.y. prior to the KPB)
The first, with the shape of a double spike, is recorded between 3.15 and 4.30 m (∼200 and 305 k.y.) above the KPB, and the second between 7.1 and 7.9 m (∼520 and 595 k.y.). We suggest that these isotopic events recognized at Zumaia correspond to the Late Maastrichtian Warming Event (LMWE), Dan-C2, and Lower C29n (LC29n) events reported at Gubbio, Italy (Tethys; Coccioni et al, 2010; Voigt et al, 2012), Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1049 and International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Site U1403 (North Atlantic; Quillévéré et al, 2008; Batenburg et al, 2018), and ODP Site 1262 (South Atlantic; Woelders et al, 2017), confirming the global character of these carbon-cycle perturbations (Figs. 1 and 3)
Summary
Is one of the best-documented intervals in Earth’s history and yet remains a subject of intensive research (Hull et al, 2020). Episodes of global climatic change during the ∼1 m.y. across the KPB include, among others, the Late Maastrichtian Warming Event (LMWE) and the Danian Dan-C2 event. The LMWE is associated with a transient 2°–5° C global warming ∼150–300 k.y. prior to the KPB (Woelders et al, 2017), and the Dan-C2 event with a 4° C sea-surface temperature rise ∼200–300 k.y. after the KPB (Quillévéré et al, 2008). Uncertainties in correlation mean that the timing of Deccan volcanism and its climatic effects over the KPB interval are still under intense discussion (e.g., Hull et al, 2020; Keller et al, 2020). Complete and expanded climate-sensitive archives with detailed age control are crucial to provide new insights into this classic problem
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