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Title: The Anatomy and Lethality of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province
Emplacement of the Siberian Traps large igneous province (LIP) around 252 Ma coincided with the most profound environmental disruption of the past 500 million years. The enormous volume of the Siberian Traps, its ability to generate greenhouse gases and other volatiles, and a temporal coincidence with extinction all suggest a causal link. Patterns of marine and terrestrial extinction/recovery are consistent with environmental stresses potentially triggered by the Siberian Traps. However, the nature of causal links between the LIP and mass extinction remains enigmatic. Understanding the origins, anatomy, and forcing potential of the Siberian Traps LIP and the spatiotemporal patterns of resulting stresses represents a critical counterpart to high-resolution fossil and proxy records of Permian–Triassic environmental and biotic shifts. This review provides a summary of recent advances and key questions regarding the Siberian Traps in an effort to illuminate what combination of factors made the Siberian Traps a uniquely deadly LIP. more »« less
Cui, Ying; Li, Mingsong; van Soelen, Elsbeth E.; Peterse, Francien; Kürschner, Wolfram M.
(, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
The end-Permian mass extinction event (∼252 Mya) is associated with one of the largest global carbon cycle perturbations in the Phanerozoic and is thought to be triggered by the Siberian Traps volcanism. Sizable carbon isotope excursions (CIEs) have been found at numerous sites around the world, suggesting massive quantities of 13 C-depleted CO 2 input into the ocean and atmosphere system. The exact magnitude and cause of the CIEs, the pace of CO 2 emission, and the total quantity of CO 2 , however, remain poorly known. Here, we quantify the CO 2 emission in an Earth system model based on new compound-specific carbon isotope records from the Finnmark Platform and an astronomically tuned age model. By quantitatively comparing the modeled surface ocean pH and boron isotope pH proxy, a massive (∼36,000 Gt C) and rapid emission (∼5 Gt C yr −1 ) of largely volcanic CO 2 source (∼−15%) is necessary to drive the observed pattern of CIE, the abrupt decline in surface ocean pH, and the extreme global temperature increase. This suggests that the massive amount of greenhouse gases may have pushed the Earth system toward a critical tipping point, beyond which extreme changes in ocean pH and temperature led to irreversible mass extinction. The comparatively amplified CIE observed in higher plant leaf waxes suggests that the surface waters of the Finnmark Platform were likely out of equilibrium with the initial massive centennial-scale release of carbon from the massive Siberian Traps volcanism, supporting the rapidity of carbon injection. Our modeling work reveals that carbon emission pulses are accompanied by organic carbon burial, facilitated by widespread ocean anoxia.
Abstract Deccan Traps flood basalt volcanism affected ecosystems spanning the end‐Cretaceous mass extinction, with the most significant environmental effects hypothesized to be a consequence of the largest eruptions. The Rajahmundry Traps are the farthest exposures (~1,000 km) of Deccan basalt from the putative eruptive centers in the Western Ghats and hence represent some of the largest volume Deccan eruptions. Although the three subaerial Rajahmundry lava flows have been geochemically correlated to the Wai Subgroup of the Deccan Traps, poor precision associated with previous radioisotopic age constraints has prevented detailed comparison with potential climate effects. In this study, we use new40Ar/39Ar dates, paleomagnetic and volcanological analyses, and biostratigraphic constraints for the Rajahmundry lava flows to ascertain the timing and style of their emplacement. We find that the lower and middle flows (65.92 ± 0.25 and 65.67 ± 0.08 Ma, ±1σsystematic uncertainty) were erupted within magnetochron C29r and were a part of the Ambenali Formation of the Deccan Traps. By contrast, the uppermost flow (65.27 ± 0.08 Ma) was erupted in C29n as part of the Mahabaleshwar Formation. Given these age constraints, the Rajahmundry flows were not involved in the end‐Cretaceous extinction as previously hypothesized. To determine whether the emplacement of the Rajahmundry flows could have affected global climate, we estimated their eruptive CO2release and corresponding climate change using scalings from the LOSCAR carbon cycle model. We find that the eruptive gas emissions of these flows were insufficient to directly cause multi‐degree warming; hence, a causal relationship with significant climate warming requires additional Earth system feedbacks.
Jiang, Yang; Xia, Yingzi; Sitarik, Ian; Sharma, Piyoosh; Song, Hyebin; Fried, Stephen D; O’Brien, Edward P
(, Science Advances)
Stretched-exponential protein refolding kinetics, first observed decades ago, were attributed to a nonnative ensemble of structures with parallel, non-interconverting folding pathways. However, the structural origin of the large energy barriers preventing interconversion between these folding pathways is unknown. Here, we combine simulations with limited proteolysis (LiP) and cross-linking (XL) mass spectrometry (MS) to study the protein phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK). Simulations recapitulate its stretched-exponential folding kinetics and reveal that misfolded states involving changes of entanglement underlie this behavior: either formation of a nonnative, noncovalent lasso entanglement or failure to form a native entanglement. These misfolded states act as kinetic traps, requiring extensive unfolding to escape, which results in a distribution of free energy barriers and pathway partitioning. Using LiP-MS and XL-MS, we propose heterogeneous structural ensembles consistent with these data that represent the potential long-lived misfolded states PGK populates. This structural and energetic heterogeneity creates a hierarchy of refolding timescales, explaining stretched-exponential kinetics.
Green, Theodore; Renne, Paul R.; Keller, C. Brenhin
(, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
Refinements of the geological timescale driven by the increasing precision and accuracy of radiometric dating have revealed an apparent correlation between large igneous provinces (LIPs) and intervals of Phanerozoic faunal turnover that has been much discussed at a qualitative level. However, the extent to which such correlations are likely to occur by chance has yet to be quantitatively tested, and other kill mechanisms have been suggested for many mass extinctions. Here, we show that the degree of temporal correlation between continental LIPs and faunal turnover in the Phanerozoic is unlikely to occur by chance, suggesting a causal relationship linking extinctions and continental flood basalts. The relationship is stronger for LIPs with higher estimated eruptive rates and for stage boundaries with higher extinction magnitudes. This suggests LIP magma degassing as a primary kill mechanism for mass extinctions and other intervals of faunal turnover, which may be related to CO 2 , SO 2 , Cl, and F release. Our results suggest continental LIPs as a major, direct driver of extinctions throughout the Phanerozoic.
Burgess, Seth D, and Black, Benjamin A. The Anatomy and Lethality of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province. Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10632891. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 53.1 Web. doi:10.1146/annurev-earth-040722-105544.
Burgess, Seth D, & Black, Benjamin A. The Anatomy and Lethality of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 53 (1). Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10632891. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-040722-105544
@article{osti_10632891,
place = {Country unknown/Code not available},
title = {The Anatomy and Lethality of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province},
url = {https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10632891},
DOI = {10.1146/annurev-earth-040722-105544},
abstractNote = {Emplacement of the Siberian Traps large igneous province (LIP) around 252 Ma coincided with the most profound environmental disruption of the past 500 million years. The enormous volume of the Siberian Traps, its ability to generate greenhouse gases and other volatiles, and a temporal coincidence with extinction all suggest a causal link. Patterns of marine and terrestrial extinction/recovery are consistent with environmental stresses potentially triggered by the Siberian Traps. However, the nature of causal links between the LIP and mass extinction remains enigmatic. Understanding the origins, anatomy, and forcing potential of the Siberian Traps LIP and the spatiotemporal patterns of resulting stresses represents a critical counterpart to high-resolution fossil and proxy records of Permian–Triassic environmental and biotic shifts. This review provides a summary of recent advances and key questions regarding the Siberian Traps in an effort to illuminate what combination of factors made the Siberian Traps a uniquely deadly LIP.},
journal = {Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences},
volume = {53},
number = {1},
publisher = {Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences},
author = {Burgess, Seth D and Black, Benjamin A},
}
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