2023/01/03 by Jun Shen, Jiubin Chen, Jianxin Yu +7 · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Computer Science · #Mercury impact and mitigation studies #Geological and Geochemical Analysis #Geochemistry and Geologic Mapping
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41467-022-35272-8
openalex publication_date 2023/01/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Abstract The latest Permian mass extinction (LPME) was triggered by magmatism of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province (STLIP), which left an extensive record of sedimentary Hg anomalies at Northern Hemisphere and tropical sites. Here, we present Hg records from terrestrial sites in southern Pangea, nearly antipodal to contemporaneous STLIP activity, providing insights into the global distribution of volcanogenic Hg during this event and its environmental processing. These profiles (two from Karoo Basin, South Africa; two from Sydney Basin, Australia) exhibit significant Hg enrichments within the uppermost Permian extinction interval as well as positive Δ 199 Hg excursions (to ~0.3‰), providing evidence of long-distance atmospheric transfer of volcanogenic Hg. These results demonstrate the far-reaching effects of the Siberian Traps as well as refine stratigraphic placement of the LPME interval in the Karoo Basin at a temporal resolution of ~10 5 years based on global isochronism of volcanogenic Hg anomalies.