1. Oceanic redox evolution across the end-Permian mass extinction at Penglaitan section, South China
- Author
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Hua Zhang, Dong-xun Yuan, Quan-feng Zheng, Lei Xiang, and Shane D. Schoepfer
- Subjects
Extinction event ,010506 paleontology ,South china ,Stratigraphy ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Geochemistry ,Paleontology ,010502 geochemistry & geophysics ,01 natural sciences ,Redox ,Redox sensitive ,Deep water ,Sedimentary depositional environment ,Speciation ,parasitic diseases ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Permian–Triassic extinction event ,Geology ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,media_common - Abstract
The end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) was known as the most severe biocrisis of the past 600 Ma. In order to explore the redox state of deep water environments, and the causal relationship between anoxia/euxinia and the EPME, this study selected the Penglaitan section in Guangxi, China, and measured the iron speciation and concentrations of trace elements and major elements. Several redox proxy approaches, including both iron speciation proxies and the excess fractions and enrichment factors of redox sensitive elements (RSEs), indicate that anoxia in the Penglaitan depositional environment was sporadic, with the majority of the section deposited under oxic conditions. This includes the interval immediately prior to and during the EPME; euxinia did not occur at the Penglaitan section around the EPME. Thus, anoxia was not the primary driver for the EPME at the Penglaitan section, and the accumulation of free H2S in the oceanic water-column could not have been the only proximal kill mechanism for the EPME at the Penglaitan section.
- Published
- 2022