Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.


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

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

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Ontong Java Plateau eruption as a trigger for the early Aptian oceanic anoxic event.
M. L. G. Tejada, K. Suzuki, J. Kuroda, R. Coccioni, J. J. Mahoney, N. Ohkouchi, T. Sakamoto, and Y. Tatsumi (2009)
Geology 37, 855-858
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
New evidence concerning the age and biotic effects of the Chicxulub impact in NE Mexico.
G. Keller, T. Adatte, A. P. Juez, and J. G. Lopez-Oliva (2009)
Journal of the Geological Society 166, 393-411
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The significance of the contemporaneous Logoisk impact structure (Belarus) and Afro-Arabian flood volcanism.
S. C. Sherlock, S. P. Kelley, L. Glazovskaya, and I. U. Peate (2009)
Journal of the Geological Society 166, 5-8
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
187Re-187Os geochronology of Precambrian organic-rich sedimentary rocks.
B. Kendall, R. A. Creaser, and D. Selby (2009)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 326, 85-107
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Inaugural Article: Equatorial convergence of India and early Cenozoic climate trends.
D. V. Kent and G. Muttoni (2008)
PNAS 105, 16065-16070
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Applications of PGE Radioisotope Systems in Geo- and Cosmochemistry.
R. W. Carlson, S. B. Shirey, and M. Schonbachler (2008)
Elements 4, 239-245
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Determining Chondritic Impactor Size from the Marine Osmium Isotope Record.
F. S. Paquay, G. E. Ravizza, T. K. Dalai, and B. Peucker-Ehrenbrink (2008)
Science 320, 214-218
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The control of weathering processes on riverine and seawater hafnium isotope ratios.
G. Bayon, N. Vigier, K. W. Burton, A. B. Jean Carignan, J. Etoubleau, and N.-C. Chu (2006)
Geology 34, 433-436
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The rhenium-osmium isotope system: applications to geochronological and palaeoenvironmental problems.
A. S. Cohen and A. S. Cohen (2004)
Journal of the Geological Society 161, 729-734
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »



To Advertise     Find Products


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