Mercury evidence from southern Pangea terrestrial sections for end-Permian global volcanic effects

Jun Shen; Jiubin Chen; Jianxin Yu; Thomas J Algeo; Roger M H Smith; Jennifer Botha; Tracy D Frank; Christopher R Fielding; Peter D Ward; Tamsin A Mather

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-35272-8

Mercury evidence from southern Pangea terrestrial sections for end-Permian global volcanic effects

Nat Commun. 2023 Jan 3;14(1):6. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-35272-8.

Authors

Jun Shen¹, Jiubin Chen², Jianxin Yu³, Thomas J Algeo^{4

3

5}, Roger M H Smith^{6

7}, Jennifer Botha^{6

8}, Tracy D Frank⁹, Christopher R Fielding⁹, Peter D Ward¹⁰, Tamsin A Mather¹¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, People's Republic of China. shenjun@cug.edu.cn.
² Institute of Surface-Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, People's Republic of China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, People's Republic of China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, People's Republic of China.
⁵ Department of Geosciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0013, USA.
⁶ Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2050, South Africa.
⁷ Iziko South African Museum, PO Box 61, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa.
⁸ National Museum, PO Box 266, Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa.
⁹ Department of Earth Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195-1800, USA.
¹¹ Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3AN, UK.

Abstract

The latest Permian mass extinction (LPME) was triggered by magmatism of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province (STLIP), which left an extensive record of sedimentary Hg anomalies at Northern Hemisphere and tropical sites. Here, we present Hg records from terrestrial sites in southern Pangea, nearly antipodal to contemporaneous STLIP activity, providing insights into the global distribution of volcanogenic Hg during this event and its environmental processing. These profiles (two from Karoo Basin, South Africa; two from Sydney Basin, Australia) exhibit significant Hg enrichments within the uppermost Permian extinction interval as well as positive Δ¹⁹⁹Hg excursions (to ~0.3‰), providing evidence of long-distance atmospheric transfer of volcanogenic Hg. These results demonstrate the far-reaching effects of the Siberian Traps as well as refine stratigraphic placement of the LPME interval in the Karoo Basin at a temporal resolution of ~10⁵ years based on global isochronism of volcanogenic Hg anomalies.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Australia
Extinction, Biological
Mercury* / analysis
South Africa

Substances

Mercury