2019/02/22 by Courtney J. Sprain, Paul R. Renne, L. Vanderkluysen +3 · 5 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Geological and Geochemical Analysis #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
paper · doi:10.1126/science.aav1446
openalex publication_date 2019/02/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Late Cretaceous records of environmental change suggest that Deccan Traps (DT) volcanism contributed to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (KPB) ecosystem crisis. However, testing this hypothesis requires identification of the KPB in the DT. We constrain the location of the KPB with high-precision argon-40/argon-39 data to be coincident with changes in the magmatic plumbing system. We also found that the DT did not erupt in three discrete large pulses and that >90% of DT volume erupted in <1 million years, with ~75% emplaced post-KPB. Late Cretaceous records of climate change coincide temporally with the eruption of the smallest DT phases, suggesting that either the release of climate-modifying gases is not directly related to eruptive volume or DT volcanism was not the source of Late Cretaceous climate change.