Geochemical markers of paleoenvironments, weathering, and provenance in Permian–Triassic terrestrial sediments

2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (8) ◽  
pp. 906-920
Author(s):  
Ana-Belén Galán-Abellán ◽  
José F. Barrenechea ◽  
Raúl de La Horra ◽  
Jacinto Alonso-Azcárate ◽  
Javier F. Luque ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Middle Triassic ◽  
Middle Part ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Physical Weathering ◽  
Biotic Recovery ◽  
Terrestrial Sediments ◽  
Tectonically Active ◽  
Geochemical Factors ◽  
Geochemical Markers

ABSTRACT This study compares several geochemical factors (major and minor rare earth elements, Ti/Al ratios, and chemical index of alteration, CIA, values) in the Early Triassic Cañizar Formation (Fm) (Buntsandtein facies) of E Iberia with those of adjacent Middle Permian and Middle Triassic units (Alcotas and Eslida fms, respectively). According to significant differences detected, it seems that most geochemical perturbation occurred during the Early Triassic. Variations in Ti/Al ratios suggest changes in source areas between the studied units and even within the Cañizar Fm. These provenance changes correlate with successive tectonic pulses during the opening and development of the Iberian Basin, as they can be linked to major sedimentary surfaces and unconformities, as well as major sedimentological variations. Ti enrichment in the lower and middle part of the Cañizar Fm, together with high Sr and P concentrations, may be indicative of environmental alterations related to acid meteoric waters. Moreover, this acid alteration took place under arid conditions as reflected by CIA values, indicating that during the deposition of the Cañizar Fm, variable but predominantly physical weathering prevailed in contrast to the chemical weathering that took place when the Alcotas and Eslida formations were deposited. Our data along with the known fossil record of the study area indicate that during the Middle–Late Permian and Early Triassic, conditions in this tectonically active area changed from humid to arid-acid, hampering biotic recovery. Then, during late Early–Middle Triassic times, the return of more humid and less acid environments promoted biotic development. Geochemical markers emerged as useful tools complementary to sedimentological, paleontological, and tectonic data for unveiling paleoenvironmental events, especially in a setting of significant regional change.

Early and Middle Triassic trends in diversity, evenness, and size of foraminifers on a carbonate platform in south China: implications for tempo and mode of biotic recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction

Paleobiology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan L. Payne ◽  
Mindi Summers ◽  
Brianna L. Rego ◽  
Demir Altiner ◽  
Jiayong Wei ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Middle Triassic ◽  
Carbonate Platform ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Recovery Pattern ◽  
Biotic Recovery ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

Delayed biotic recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction has long been interpreted to result from environmental inhibition. Recently, evidence of more rapid recovery has begun to emerge, suggesting the role of environmental inhibition was previously overestimated. However, there have been few high-resolution taxonomic and ecological studies spanning the full Early and Middle Triassic recovery interval, leaving the precise pattern of recovery and underlying mechanisms poorly constrained. In this study, we document Early and Middle Triassic trends in taxonomic diversity, assemblage evenness, and size distribution of benthic foraminifers on an exceptionally exposed carbonate platform in south China. We observe gradual increases in all metrics through Early Triassic and earliest Middle Triassic time, with stable values reached early in the Anisian. There is little support in our data set for a substantial Early Triassic lag interval during the recovery of foraminifers or for a stepwise recovery pattern. The recovery pattern of foraminifers on the GBG corresponds well with available global data for this taxon and appears to parallel that of many benthic invertebrate clades. Early Triassic diversity increase in foraminifers was more gradual than in ammonoids and conodonts. However, foraminifers continued to increase in diversity, size, and evenness into Middle Triassic time, whereas diversity of ammonoids and conodonts declined. These contrasts suggest decoupling of recovery between benthic and pelagic environments; it is unclear whether these discrepancies reflect inherent contrasts in their evolutionary dynamics or the differential impact of Early Triassic ocean anoxia or associated environmental parameters on benthic ecosystems.

scholarly journals An Early Triassic sauropterygian and associated fauna from South China provide insights into Triassic ecosystem health

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Li ◽  
Jun Liu
Keyword(s):  
South China ◽  
Ecosystem Health ◽  
Middle Triassic ◽  
Carbonate Platform ◽  
Data Matrix ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Associated Fauna ◽  
Biotic Recovery ◽  
New Material ◽  
Prevailing View

AbstractThe timing and pattern of biotic recovery from the Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction remains elusive. Here we report new material of the Early Triassic sauropterygian Lariosaurus sanxiaensis and associated fauna from the Jialingjiang Formation in Hubei Province, South China. Phylogenetic analysis based on a novel data matrix of sauropterygians recognizes L. sanxiaensis as a basal nothosaur. Stratigraphic congruence analysis shows that the new phylogenetic consensus tree matches to the stratigraphic distribution of sauropterygians very well. The diversified reptilian fauna and inferred simple food web in the Nanzhang-Yuan’an fauna where L. sanxiaensis was discovered suggest that the Triassic biotic recovery adopted a top-down pattern, in contrast to the prevailing view. Comparison with the Middle Triassic Luoping biota from the same carbonate platform suggests that the Triassic biotic recovery is delayed and healthy ecosystems were not established until the Middle Triassic in South China.

scholarly journals Global warming leads to Early Triassic nutrient stress across northern Pangea

2019 ◽  
Vol 132 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 943-954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen E. Grasby ◽  
Jochen Knies ◽  
Benoit Beauchamp ◽  
David P.G. Bond ◽  
Paul Wignall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Middle Triassic ◽  
N Availability ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Progressive Decline ◽  
Northern Margin ◽  
Nutrient Limitations ◽  
Biotic Recovery ◽  
Marine Primary Productivity ◽  
Marine Productivity

Abstract The largest extinction in Earth history, in the latest Permian, was followed throughout most of the Early Triassic by a prolonged period of ecologic recovery. What factors delayed biotic recovery are still under debate and partly revolve around impacts of global warming on primary marine productivity. We examined N isotope records from the Festningen section on Spitsbergen, Arctic Norway, to examine changes in nutrient availability through the Early to Middle Triassic along the northern margin of Pangea. Our results show progressive decline in N availability throughout the Griesbachian, leading to severe nutrient limitations through the remainder of the Early Triassic, until returning to a highly productive continental margin in Middle Triassic time. These results are consistent with other studies from northern and western Pangea and thus show regional nutrient limitations occurred in what should have been the main zone of marine primary productivity. Such nutrient limitation likely stressed primary production and consequently contributed to prolonged marine recovery. We suggest this was driven by high ocean temperatures depressing the marine nutricline.

scholarly journals Amelioration of marine environments at the Smithian–Spathian boundary, Early Triassic

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1597-1613 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Zhang ◽  
L. Zhao ◽  
Z.-Q. Chen ◽  
T. J. Algeo ◽  
Y. Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Sulfur Isotopes ◽  
Sediment Flux ◽  
Guizhou Province ◽  
Large Igneous Province ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Organic Carbon Burial ◽  
Climatic Cooling

Abstract. The protracted recovery of marine ecosystems following the Permian–Triassic mass extinction may have been caused, in part, by episodic environmental and climatic crises during the Early Triassic, among which the Smithian–Spathian boundary (SSB) event is conspicuous. Here, we investigate the SSB event in the Shitouzhai section, Guizhou Province, South China, using a combination of carbonate carbon (δ13Ccarb) and carbonate-associated sulfate sulfur isotopes (δ34SCAS), rare earth elements, and elemental paleoredox and paleoproductivity proxies. The SSB at Shitouzhai is characterized by a +4‰ shift in δ13Ccarb and a −10 to −15‰ shift in δ34SCAS, recording negative covariation that diverges from the positive δ13Ccarb−δ34SCAS covariation that characterizes most of the Early Triassic. This pattern is inferred to reflect an increase in organic carbon burial (e.g., due to elevated marine productivity) concurrently with the oxidation of isotopically light H2S, as the result of enhanced vertical advection of nutrient- and sulfide-rich deep waters to the ocean-surface layer. Enhanced upwelling was likely a response to climatic cooling and the reinvigoration of global-ocean overturning circulation at the SSB. Coeval decreases in chemical weathering intensity and detrital sediment flux at Shitouzhai are also consistent with climatic cooling. A decline in marine biodiversity was probably associated with the late Smithian thermal maximum (LSTM) rather than with the SSB per se. The SSB thus marked the termination of the extreme hothouse conditions of the Griesbachian–Smithian substages of the Early Triassic and is significant as a record of accompanying climatic, environmental, and biotic changes. The ultimate cause of the SSB event is uncertain but may have been related to a reduction in intrusive magmatic activity in the Siberian Traps large igneous province.

A new faunistic component of the Lower Triassic Panchet Formation of India increases the continental non-archosauromorph neodiapsid record in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Martín D. Ezcurra ◽  
Saswati Bandyopadhyay ◽  
Kasturi Sen
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Lower Triassic ◽  
Maximum Height ◽  
Dorsal Margin ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Anterior Portion ◽  
Continental Deposits ◽  
Biotic Recovery ◽  
Patterns And Processes ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

Abstract The fossil record of Early Triassic diapsids is very important to understand how the end-Permian mass extinction affected ecosystems and the patterns and processes involved in the subsequent biotic recovery. Vertebrate fossil assemblages of continental deposits in current-day South Africa, China, and Russia are the best source of information of this clade during the aftermath of the extinction event. Although considerably less sampled, the Induan continental rocks of the Panchet Formation of the Damodar Basin (eastern India) have also yielded a relatively diverse vertebrate assemblage composed of fishes, temnospondyls, synapsids, and a single proterosuchid taxon. Here, we report on a small isolated diapsid partial ilium (ISIR 1132) from the upper Panchet Formation. This specimen has a distinct morphology compared to other tetrapods that we know, including a shallow emargination on the dorsal margin of the anterior portion of the iliac blade, and ratio between height of iliac blade versus maximum height of iliac acetabulum at level of the dorsalmost extension of supraacetabular crest ≤0.45. Comparisons and a quantitative phylogenetic analysis found ISIR 1132 as a non-archosauromorph neodiapsid. This new specimen expands the reptile diversity in the Panchet Formation as well as for the rest of Gondwana, where Early Triassic non-archosauromorph neodiapsid species are extremely scarce.

scholarly journals Intensified chemical weathering during Early Triassic revealed by magnesium isotopes

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 ◽  
pp. 263-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin-Yang Chen ◽  
Fang-Zhen Teng ◽  
Kang-Jun Huang ◽  
Thomas J. Algeo
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Magnesium Isotopes

scholarly journals Rebound from the Permian/Triassic mass extinction: evolutionary paleoecology of sequential early Triassic (Smithian to Spathian) marine paleocommunities

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 261-261
Author(s):  
Jennifer K. Schubert ◽  
David J. Bottjer
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Lower Triassic ◽  
Upper Permian ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Triassic Boundary ◽  
Biotic Recovery ◽  
The Status ◽  
Life Habits ◽  
Stalked Crinoids ◽  
Permian Triassic Boundary

The Permian/Triassic mass extinction, the most devastating biotic crisis of the Phanerozoic, has aroused considerable scientific interest. However, because research has focused primarily on understanding the magnitude of diversity reduction and causal mechanisms, the nature and timing of biotic recovery in the Early Triassic are still poorly understood. Marine limestones in the Lower Triassic Moenkopi Formation, which disconformably overlies the Upper Permian of southeastern Nevada and southern Utah, provide a rare opportunity to study the aftermath of the mass extinction in shallow water carbonate environments.Two contemporaneous members of the Moenkopi record the first marine incursion from the northwest in the Early Triassic (Smithian), the very sparsely fossiliferous marginal marine Schnabkaib Member in Nevada and southwest Utah, and the Sinbad Limestone in central-southern Utah, a marine unit dominated by amalgamated and condensed fossil-rich beds. The Virgin Limestone member was deposited during a subsequent (Spathian) Early Triassic sea level rise, about 4-5 Ma following the Permian/Triassic boundary, and includes nearshore and inner shelf limestones characterized by fossiliferous storm beds.Because the fossiliferous limestones of the Smithian Sinbad and the Spathian Virgin were deposited in similar shallow subtidal settings, they provide an opportunity to compare and contrast the status of biotic rebound at different points along an Early Triassic “time transect.” Analysis of bulk samples reveals that the older Sinbad and younger Virgin are similar in each possessing 2-3 different benthic marine paleocommunities of low within-habitat species richness. There are, however, several important differences between the Sinbad and Virgin faunas. The richly fossiliferous Sinbad assemblages are primarily molluscan, composed of approximately 2-8 species of bivalves, which may or may not be accompanied by ammonoids and 0-11 species of gastropods. Small spines, possibly belonging to an echinoid, are numerous in some samples. Although bivalves are also abundant in Virgin Limestone assemblages, fossils of other higher taxa are well-represented, including abundant crinoid ossicles, common brachiopods, echinoid spines and plates, and rare ammonoids and gastropods. Sinbad faunas also appear to lack epibionts and borers, while they are present but not abundant in the Virgin.The addition from Sinbad to Virgin times of groups other than molluscs, with different life habits and strategies, most likely led to an increase in spatial partitioning and resource utilization, in particular the development of epifaunal tiering with the appearance of stalked crinoids in the Virgin. This pattern of earliest Triassic community dominance by molluscs followed by later more “Paleozoic-like” communities has been observed in other regions. Earliest Triassic paucity of epibionts and borers indicates significant reduction in the biotic component of taphonomic processes, including taphonomic feedback, when compared with other time intervals. Data from these Early Triassic assemblages thus indicate the initiation of both an evolutionary and an ecological rebound between Sinbad (Smithian) and Virgin (Spathian) times.

scholarly journals The Effect of Weathering on Salt Release from Coal Mine Spoils

Minerals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 760
Author(s):  
Melinda Hilton ◽  
Mandana Shaygan ◽  
Neil McIntyre ◽  
Thomas Baumgartl ◽  
Mansour Edraki
Keyword(s):  
Particle Size ◽  
Coal Mine ◽  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Physical Weathering ◽  
Particle Size Fractions ◽  
Mine Spoils ◽  
Weathering Processes ◽  
Three Samples ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Physical And Chemical

Coal mine spoils have the potential to create environmental impacts, such as salt load to surrounding environments, particularly when exposed to weathering processes. This study was conducted to understand the effect of physical and chemical weathering on the magnitude, rate, and dynamics of salt release from different coal mine spoils. Five spoil samples from three mines in Queensland were sieved to three different particle size fractions (<2 mm, 2–6 mm, and >6 mm). Two samples were dispersive spoils, and three samples were nondispersive spoils. The spoils were subjected to seven wet–dry cycles, where the samples were periodically leached with deionised water. The rate, magnitude, and dynamics of solutes released from spoils were spoil specific. One set of spoils did not show any evidence of weathering, but initially had higher accumulation of salts. In contrast, broad oxidative weathering occurred in another set of spoils; this led to acid generation and resulted in physical weathering, promoting adsorption–desorption and dissolution and, thus, a greater release of salts. This study indicated that the rate and magnitude of salt release decreased with increasing particle size. Nevertheless, when the spoil is dispersive, the degree of weathering manages salt release irrespective of initial particle size. This study revealed that the long-term salt release from spoils is not only governed by geochemistry, weathering degree, and particle size but also controlled by the water/rock ratio and hydrological conditions of spoils.

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