image: Photographs of sample material of the sills in Brazil, which caused the contact metamorphism of surrounding rocks and generation of thermogenic carbon. view more
Credit: Image credit: Thea Hatlen Heimdal.
A study modeling the carbon cycle around the time of the end-Triassic extinction event finds that the periods of isotopically light carbon that coincide with the extinction could have been caused by carbon release from the metamorphism of rocks that came in contact with igneous sills in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province in the region that is now Brazil, according to the authors.
Article #20-00095: "Thermogenic carbon release from the Central Atlantic magmatic province caused major end-Triassic carbon cycle perturbations," by Thea H. Heimdal, Morgan T. Jones, and Henrik. H. Svensen.
MEDIA CONTACT: Thea H. Heimdal, University of Oslo, NORWAY; e-mail: t.h.heimdal@geo.uio.no
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Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences