2014/12/12 by Blair Schoene, Kyle M. Samperton, Michael P. Eddy +5 · 7 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Geological and Geochemical Analysis #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Evolution and Paleontology Studies
paper · doi:10.1126/science.aaa0118
openalex publication_date 2014/12/12 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
The Chicxulub asteroid impact (Mexico) and the eruption of the massive Deccan volcanic province (India) are two proposed causes of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, which includes the demise of nonavian dinosaurs. Despite widespread acceptance of the impact hypothesis, the lack of a high-resolution eruption timeline for the Deccan basalts has prevented full assessment of their relationship to the mass extinction. Here we apply uranium-lead (U-Pb) zircon geochronology to Deccan rocks and show that the main phase of eruptions initiated ~250,000 years before the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and that >1.1 million cubic kilometers of basalt erupted in ~750,000 years. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the Deccan Traps contributed to the latest Cretaceous environmental change and biologic turnover that culminated in the marine and terrestrial mass extinctions.