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Strangelove Ocean and Deposition of Unusual Shallow-Water Carbonates After the End-Permian Mass ExtinctionThe severe mass extinction of marine and terrestrial organisms at the end of the Permian Period (approx. 251 Ma) was accompanied by a rapid negative excursion of approx. 3 to 4 per mil in the carbon-isotope ratio of the global surface oceans and atmosphere that persisted for some 500,000 into the Early Triassic. Simulations with an ocean-atmosphere/carbon-cycle model suggest that the isotope excursion can be explained by collapse of ocean primary productivity (a Strangelove Ocean) and changes in the delivery and cycling of carbon in the ocean and on land. Model results also suggest that perturbations of the global carbon cycle resulting from the extinctions led to short-term fluctuations in atmospheric pCO2 and ocean carbonate deposition, and to a long-term (>1 Ma) decrease in sedimentary burial of organic carbon in the Triassic. Deposition of calcium carbonate is a major sink of river-derived ocean alkalinity and for CO2 from the ocean/atmosphere system. The end of the Permian was marked by extinction of most calcium carbonate secreting organisms. Therefore, the reduction of carbonate accumulation made the oceans vulnerable to a build-up of alkalinity and related fluctuations in atmospheric CO2. Our model results suggest that an increase in ocean carbonate-ion concentration should cause increased carbonate accumulation rates in shallow-water settings. After the end-Permian extinctions, early Triassic shallow-water sediments show an abundance of abiogenic and microbial carbonates that removed CaCO3 from the ocean and may have prevented a full 'ocean-alkalinity crisis' from developing.
Document ID
20030067029
Acquisition Source
Headquarters
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Rampino, Michael R.
(NASA Goddard Inst. for Space Studies New York, NY, United States)
Caldeira, Ken
(Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Livermore, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2003
Publication Information
Publication: Third International Conference on Large Meteorite Impacts
Subject Category
Geophysics
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
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