Intensified continental chemical weathering and carbon-cycle perturbations linked to volcanism during the Triassic-Jurassic transition.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35027546.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-27965-x and PMC identifier 8758789.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Direct evidence of intense chemical weathering induced by volcanism is rare in sedimentary successions. Here, we undertake a multiproxy analysis (including organic carbon isotopes, mercury (Hg) concentrations and isotopes, chemical index of alteration (CIA), and clay minerals) of two well-dated Triassic-Jurassic (T-J) boundary sections representing high- and low/middle-paleolatitude sites. Both sections show increasing CIA in association with Hg peaks near the T-J boundary. We interpret these results as reflecting volcanism-induced intensification of continental chemical weathering, which is also supported by negative mass-independent fractionation (MIF) of odd Hg isotopes. The interval of enhanced chemical weathering persisted for ~2 million years, which is consistent with carbon-cycle model results of the time needed to drawdown excess atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> following a carbon release event. Lastly, these data also demonstrate that high-latitude continental settings are more sensitive than low/middle-latitude sites to shifts in weathering intensity during climatic warming events.