Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Deccan Volcanism - Chemostratigraphic Evidence from the Marine Osmium Isotope Record

It has been hypothesised that continental flood basalt (CFB) volcanism had a causative role in global climate change and mass extinctions. A clear assessment of the chronology of the environmental consequences of CFB volcanism was not possibly as a result of uncertainties associated with radiometric dating. The results of the study carried out by the authors¹ document a decline of 25 % in ¹⁸⁷Os/¹⁸⁸Os record predating the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KTB), coinciding with the warming event of the Late Maastrichtian. A chemostratigraphic marker of the Deccan volcanism is provided by this decline, according to the authors¹, which therefore constitutes compelling evidence that a transient global warming event of 3-5^oC that is fully resolved from the KTB mass extinction event was the main environmental consequence of the Deccan volcanism.

Sources & Further reading

1. Ravizza, G., and B. Peucker-Ehrenbrink. "Chemostratigraphic Evidence of Deccan Volcanism from the Marine Osmium Isotope Record." Science 302, no. 5649 (November 21, 2003 2003): 1392-95.