End-Permian catastrophe by a bolide impact: Evidence of a gigantic release of sulfur from the mantle
- Kunio Kaiho*1,
- Yoshimichi Kajiwara*2,
- Takanori Nakano*2,
- Yasunori Miura*3,
- Hodaka Kawahata*4,
- Kazue Tazaki*5,
- Masato Ueshima*5,
- Zhongqiang Chen*6 and
- Guang R. Shi*6
- 1Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
- 2Institute of Geoscience, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan
- 3Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi 753-8512, Japan
- 4Marine Geology Department, Geological Survey of Japan, Ibaraki 305-8567, Japan
- 5Department of Earth Sciences, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan
- 6School of Ecology and Environment, Deakin University, Rusden Campus, 662 Blackburn Road, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia
Abstract
Our studies in southern China have revealed a remarkable sulfur and strontium isotope excursion at the end of the Permian, along with a coincident concentration of impact- metamorphosed grains and kaolinite and a significant decrease in manganese, phosphorous, calcium, and microfossils (foraminifera). These data suggest that an asteroid or a comet hit the ocean at the end of Permian time and caused a rapid and massive release of sulfur from the mantle to the ocean-atmosphere system, leading to significant oxygen consumption, acid rain, and the most severe biotic crisis in the history of life on Earth.
Footnotes
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↵*kaihodges.tohoku.ac.jp.
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↵GSA Data Repository item 2001092, Appendix 1, Methods and data, is available on request from Documents Secretary, GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140, editing@geosociety.org, or at www.geosociety.org/pubs/ft2001.htm.
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- Accepted May 18, 2001.
- Received November 27, 2000.
- Revision received May 1, 2001.
- Geological Society of America
