Correlating the end-Triassic mass extinction and flood basalt volcanism at the 100 ka level

Abstract

New high-precision U/Pb geochronology from volcanic ashes shows that the Triassic-Juras- sic boundary and end-Triassic biological crisis from two independent marine stratigraphic sections correlate with the onset of terrestrial fl ood volcanism in the Central Atlantic Mag- matic Province to <150 ka. This narrows the correlation between volcanism and mass extinc- tion by an order of magnitude for any such catastrophe in Earth history. We also show that a concomitant drop and rise in sea level and negative δ 13 C spike in the very latest Triassic occurred locally in <290 ka. Such rapid sea-level fl uctuations on a global scale require that global cooling and glaciation were closely associated with the end-Triassic extinction and potentially driven by Central Atlantic Magmatic Province volcanism.