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Australia: The Land Where Time Began |
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LIPs - Ethiopian and Columbia River flood basalts
The 2 youngest CFBPs appear to have had little if any impact on the
biota of the world, as they are also the 2 smallest CFBPs. The Ethiopian
Traps are comprised of 0.75 million km3 of lava which erupted
from 31 Ma to 28 Ma (Courtillot et
al., 1999). These eruptions
have been linked (Rampino & Stothers, 1988) with a Late Eocene
protracted extinction, though this 34 Ma event predates considerably the
Ethiopian eruptions. The Columbia River Traps, that are even smaller,
contain 0.17 million km3 of lava and they have been linked
with an extinction event in the mid-Miocene with which they coincide
(Coffin & Eldholm, 1994). This minor event was first identified in a
compilation (Raup & Sepkoski, 1984), is only notable for the elevated
extinction rates among the ever-vulnerable, deep sea benthic
foraminifera, attributed (Kaiho, 1994) to prolonged cooling of deep
ocean water. Mammals in North America were also affected by extinctions
in the Late Miocene (Hallam & Wignall, 1997), though these losses
occurred several million years after the peak of the Columbia River
eruptions.
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Author: M.H.Monroe Email: admin@austhrutime.com Sources & Further reading |