Episodic photic zone euxinia in the northeastern Panthalassic Ocean during the end-Triassic extinction
Author(s)
Kasprak, A. H.; Price-Waldman, R.; Williford, K. H.; Schoepfer, S. D.; Haggart, J. W.; Ward, P. D.; Whiteside, J. H.; Sepulveda, Julio C; Summons, Roger E; ... Show more Show less
DownloadSummons_Episodic photic zone.pdf (274.1Kb)
OPEN_ACCESS_POLICY
Open Access Policy
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Severe changes in ocean redox, nutrient cycling, and marine productivity accompanied most Phanerozoic mass extinctions. However, evidence for marine photic zone euxinia (PZE) as a globally important extinction mechanism for the end-Triassic extinction (ETE) is currently lacking. Fossil molecular (biomarker) and nitrogen isotopic records from a sedimentary sequence in western Canada provide the first conclusive evidence of PZE and disrupted biogeochemistry in neritic waters of the Panthalassic Ocean during the end Triassic. Increasing water-column stratification and deoxygenation across the ETE led to PZE in the Early Jurassic, paralleled by a perturbed nitrogen cycle and ecological turnovers among noncalcifying groups, including eukaryotic algae and prokaryotic plankton. If such conditions developed widely in the Panthalassic Ocean, PZE might have been a potent mechanism for the ETE.
Date issued
2015-02Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary SciencesJournal
Geology
Publisher
Geological Society of America
Citation
Kasprak, A. H. et al. “Episodic Photic Zone Euxinia in the Northeastern Panthalassic Ocean during the End-Triassic Extinction.” Geology 43.4 (2015): 307–310.
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
0091-7613
1943-2682