Instant Weathering Response to Carbon-Cycle Perturbations During the End-Triassic Extinction

[Geoengineering News]

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ter.70033?af=R

Authors: Jochen Knies, Tobias Kurz, Michael Brauns, Christoph Vogt, Arlinda F. Ciftja, Ana Banica, Jasmin Schönenberger, Kristian Drivenes, Trond Slagstad, Eun Jin Son, Morten Smelror, Sae Yun Kwon

First published: 02 March 2026

https://doi.org/10.1111/ter.70033

 

Abstract

Constraints on the continental weathering feedback on carbon-cycle perturbations on northern Pangea during the end Triassic extinction (ETE) are sparse. Here, we use hyperspectral core imaging (HSI) applied to conglomeratic beds offshore central Norway which shows that enhanced degassing of basalt flows from the Central Atlantic magmatic province (CAMP) was concurrent with intense continental transformation during the ETE. We use carbon isotopes and well-constrained mercury pulses emitted in gaseous form during volcanism, and subsequently deposited in near-coastal sediments, to identify the ETE. Parallel to mercury pulses, smectite was immediately replaced by kaolinite at the extinction level, corroborating increased erosion of radiogenic weathering products from the hinterland as inferred from osmium isotopes. Our results suggest that parallel with CAMP activity and atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2) up to four times the pre-extinction level, continental weathering instantaneously intensified, providing novel empirical knowledge that can be integrated into carbon-cycle models.

Source: Wiley Online Library