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Science 7 June 2002:
Vol. 296. no. 5574, pp. 1846 - 1849
DOI: 10.1126/science.1071671

Reports

40Ar/39Ar Dates from the West Siberian Basin: Siberian Flood Basalt Province Doubled

Marc K. Reichow,1 Andrew D. Saunders,1* Rosalind V. White,1 Malcolm S. Pringle,2 Alexander I. Al'Mukhamedov,3 Alexander I. Medvedev,3 Nikolay P. Kirda4

Widespread basaltic volcanism occurred in the region of the West Siberian Basin in central Russia during Permo-Triassic times. New 40Ar/39Ar age determinations on plagioclase grains from deep boreholes in the basin reveal that the basalts were erupted 249.4 ± 0.5 million years ago. This is synchronous with the bulk of the Siberian Traps, erupted further east on the Siberian Platform. The age and geochemical data confirm that the West Siberian Basin basalts are part of the Siberian Traps and at least double the confirmed area of the volcanic province as a whole. The larger area of volcanism strengthens the link between the volcanism and the end-Permian mass extinction.

1 Department of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
2 Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride G75 0QF, UK.
3 Institute of Geochemistry, Favorsky Street, Post Office Box 4019, Irkutsk 664033, Russia.
4 Institute of Geology Oil and Gas, Koptyug Avenue 3, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ads{at}le.ac.uk


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)