High-latitude climatic response across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary recorded by Mg-Cu-Zn isotopes

Abstract

The Triassic-Jurassic boundary is one of the most important geological boundaries in the Earth's evolutionary history. Previous paleoclimate studies focused primarily on Tethys realm at low and middle latitudes, while the northern hemisphere has yet to be studied. Here, we report Mg-Zn-Cu isotopic data for a continuous terrestrial sedimentary section in the southern margin of the Junggar Basin to constrain chemical weathering intensity and climatic change during this critical interval at high latitude. This section is enriched in heavy Mg isotopes with δ26Mg ranging from 0.08‰ to 0.43‰. It displays a decreasing Zn isotopic composition with δ66Zn ranging from −0.05‰ to 0.24‰, as well as limited Cu isotope fractionation (δ65Cu = −0.06‰ to 0.09‰). These isotopic results, combined with major and trace elemental variations, suggest a reduced sedimentary environment and increasingly intensive chemical weathering across the boundary, responding to a warmer and more humid paleoclimate. Compared with other places located around Tethys, this regional climatic change in high latitude areas can be linked to known global climate change during this period. Our study provides new insights from high-latitude Asia to reconstruct the global pattern of climate change at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary.