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Science 21 November 2003:
Vol. 302. no. 5649, pp. 1392 - 1395
DOI: 10.1126/science.1089209
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Reports

Chemostratigraphic Evidence of Deccan Volcanism from the Marine Osmium Isotope Record

G. Ravizza1* and B. Peucker-Ehrenbrink2

Continental flood basalt (CFB) volcanism is hypothesized to have played a causative role in global climate change and mass extinctions. Uncertainties associated with radiometric dating preclude a clear chronological assessment of the environmental consequences of CFB volcanism. Our results document a 25% decline in the marine 187Os/188Os record that predates the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (KTB) and coincides with late Maastrichtian warming. We argue that this decline provides a chemostratigraphic marker of Deccan volcanism and thus constitutes compelling evidence that the main environmental consequence of Deccan volcanism was a transient global warming event of 3° to 5°C that is fully resolved from the KTB mass extinction.

1 Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822–2225, USA.
2 Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ravizza{at}hawaii.edu

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