Synchrony of the Central Atlantic magmatic province and the Triassic-Jurassic boundary climatic and biotic crisis

  1. Andrea Marzoli*1,
  2. Hervé Bertrand*2,
  3. Kim B. Knight*3,
  4. Simonetta Cirilli*4,
  5. Nicoletta Buratti*4,
  6. Chrystèle Vérati*5,
  7. Sébastien Nomade*6,
  8. Paul R. Renne*6,
  9. Nasrrddine Youbi*7,
  10. Rossana Martini*8,
  11. Karin Allenbach*8,
  12. Ralph Neuwerth*8,
  13. Cédric Rapaille*8,
  14. Louisette Zaninetti*8 and
  15. Giuliano Bellieni*9
  1. 1Dipartimento di Mineralogia e Petrologia, Università di Padova, c. Garibaldi 37, 35137 Padova, Italy
  2. 2Laboratoire des Sciences de la Terre, UMR-CNRS 5570, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, and UCBL, 46, Allée d'Italie, 69364 Lyon, France
  3. 3Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  4. 4Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Perugia, Piazza Università 1, 06100 Perugia, Italy
  5. 5Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, UMR Géosciences Azur, Parc Valrose, 06108 Nice, France
  6. 6Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, California 94709, USA, and Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  7. 7Department of Geology, Cadi Ayyad University, Boulevard Prince Moulay Abdellah, Marrakech, Morocco
  8. 8Section des Sciences de la Terre, Université de Genève, 13 rue des Maraîchers, 1205 Genève, Switzerland
  9. 9Dipartimento di Mineralogia e Petrologia, Università di Padova, c. Garibaldi 37, 35137 Padova, Italy

    Abstract

    The evolution of life on Earth is marked by catastrophic extinction events, one of which occurred ca. 200 Ma at the transition from the Triassic Period to the Jurassic Period (Tr-J boundary), apparently contemporaneous with the eruption of the world's largest known continental igneous province, the Central Atlantic magmatic province. The temporal relationship of the Tr-J boundary and the province's volcanism is clarified by new multidisciplinary (stratigraphic, palynologic, geochronologic, paleomagnetic, geochemical) data that demonstrate that development of the Central Atlantic magmatic province straddled the Tr-J boundary and thus may have had a causal relationship with the climatic crisis and biotic turnover demarcating the boundary.

    Footnotes

    • ↵* andrea.marzoliunipd.it

    • ↵GSA Data Repository item 2004158, description of methods and sampling, photographs of outcrop and of sporomorphs, examples of demagnetization behavior, and sporomorph counting, Ar/Ar, geochemical and paleomagnetic data (Figs. DR1–DR3, Tables DR1–DR6), is available online at www.geosociety.org/pubs/ft2004.htm, or on request from editinggeosociety.org or Documents Secretary, GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140, USA.

      • Accepted July 19, 2004.
      • Received March 19, 2004.
      • Revision received July 19, 2004.
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    1. doi: 10.1130/G20652.1 Geology November 2004 v. 32 no. 11 p. 973-976
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