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Field Evidence for Coal Combustion Links the 252 Ma Siberian Traps with Global Carbon Disruption L.T

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Field Evidence for Coal Combustion Links the 252 Ma Siberian Traps with Global Carbon Disruption L.T https://doi.org/10.1130/G47365.1 Manuscript received 3 January 2020 Revised manuscript received 11 May 2020 Manuscript accepted 18 May 2020 © 2020 The Authors. Gold Open Access: This paper is published under the terms of the CC-BY license. Published online 12 June 2020 Field evidence for coal combustion links the 252 Ma Siberian Traps with global carbon disruption L.T. Elkins-Tanton1, S.E. Grasby2, B.A. Black3,4, R.V. Veselovskiy5,6, O.H. Ardakani2 and F. Goodarzi7 1 School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 Terrace Mall, Tempe, Arizona 95287, USA 2 Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, 3303 33rd Street NW, Calgary, Alberta T2L 2A7, Canada 3 Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science, City College of New York, 160 Convent Avenue, New York, New York 10031, USA 4 Earth and Environmental Science, City University of New York Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York, USA 5 Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 123242, Russia 6 Geological Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119991, Russia 7 FG & Partners Ltd., 219 Hawkside Mews NW, Calgary, Alberta T3G 3J4, Canada ABSTRACT and Czamanske, 1997). Near Norilsk, the basal The Permian-Triassic extinction was the most severe in Earth history. The Siberian Traps volcaniclastic sequences is typically only several eruptions are strongly implicated in the global atmospheric changes that likely drove the meters thick. extinction. A sharp negative carbon isotope excursion coincides within geochronological The presence of coal fly ash layers at the uncertainty with the oldest dated rocks from the Norilsk section of the Siberian flood basalts. end-Permian boundary in Arctic Canada pro- We focused on the voluminous volcaniclastic rocks of the Siberian Traps, relatively unstud- vides tantalizing evidence for coal combustion ied as potential carriers of carbon-bearing gases. Over six field seasons we collected rocks at that time (Grasby et al., 2011). We examined from across the Siberian platform, and we show here the first direct evidence that the earli- the organic carbon content of the Siberian Traps est eruptions in the southern part of the province burned large volumes of a combination rocks with a particular focus on early volcanicla- of vegetation and coal. We demonstrate that the volume and composition of organic matter stic rocks spanning the large igneous province interacting with magmas may explain the global carbon isotope signal and may have signifi- (Table 1), from earliest eruptions to latest (here cantly driven the extinction. we are referring to the late-stage rocks of the Maymecha-Kotuy region), to provide a compre- INTRODUCTION morphism and combustion of coal, carbonates, hensive assessment of organic-matter incorpo- With loss of >90% of marine species, the and organic-rich shales produce significant CO2 ration during magmatism. Here we give further Permian-Triassic extinction was the most severe and CH4, as well as carbonate metamorphism evidence that Siberian Traps magmas intruded in Earth history (Erwin, 2006). High-precision producing CO2, in addition to the gases released into and incorporated coal and organic material, geochronology implicates Siberian Traps erup- by volcanics, all of which would have contrib- and, for the first time, give direct evidence that tions in the global environmental changes that uted to global warming (Retallack and Jahren, the magmas also combusted large quantities of caused the extinction (Wignall, 2001; Grasby 2008; Svensen et al., 2009; Iacono-Marziano coal and organic matter during eruption. et al., 2011; Burgess and Bowring, 2015; Bur- et al., 2012). However, the magnitude, tempo, gess et al., 2017) and carbon cycle perturbation, and origin of carbon emissions during Siberian METHODS AND RESULTS including a sharp negative carbon isotope excur- Traps magmatism have remained in question Field Sampling sion that is a key feature of the mass-extinction despite their critical atmospheric importance We sampled along a traverse north from Ust- interval (e.g., Payne and Clapham, 2012). This (Cui and Kump, 2015; Black et al., 2018). Ilimsk along ∼200 km of the Angara River, and carbon isotope excursion coincides within geo- The earliest volcanic deposits of the Siberian a similar distance along the Nizhnyaya Tun- chronological uncertainty with the oldest dated Traps include volcaniclastic rocks that overlie guska River centering on Tura (Fig. 1). Almost rocks from the Norilsk section of the Siberian Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and underlie the every outcrop on these rivers consists of thick flood basalts (Burgess and Bowring, 2015). main lava pile in the southern regions of the sequences of volcaniclastic rocks, which have Siberian Traps magmas were chambered province (Naumov and Ankudimova, 1995). been mapped in direct contact with upper Perm- within, and intruded through, the Tunguska sedi- The thickest volcaniclastic rocks are near the ian sedimentary rocks (Malich et al., 1974). Car- mentary sequence (Il’yukhina and Verbitskaya, town of Tura and farther south (Fig. 1). Near bonized woody fragments as much as 10 cm in 1976). The Tunguska Basin varies between 3 Tura, drill cores reveal >600 m of volcaniclastic length were embedded in a number of outcrops and 12 km thick, and includes carbonates, evap- rocks, grading directly into the earliest lavas of on both the Angara and Nizhnyaya Tunguska orites, oil and gas, and coal (e.g., Svensen et al., the flood basalts (Levitan and Zastoina, 1985). Rivers (Black et al., 2015). No exposures of 2018). Coal strata range in age from Carbonifer- In the Maymecha-Kotuy region, the Pravoboyar- Permian and older coal layers were observed ous to Permian, with a cumulative coal thickness sky Suite basal volcaniclastic sequence reaches along either river. However, dolerite in a coal of ∼100 m (Ryabov et al., 2014). Thermal meta- a maximum thickness of 200–300 m (Fedorenko quarry near the Angara River in Ust-Ilimsk CITATION: Elkins-Tanton, L.T., et al., 2020, Field evidence for coal combustion links the 252 Ma Siberian Traps with global carbon disruption: Geology, v. 48, p. 986–991, https://doi.org/10.1130/G47365.1 986 www.gsapubs.org | Volume 48 | Number 10 | GEOLOGY | Geological Society of America Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-pdf/48/10/986/5146678/986.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Figure 1. Map showing early southern volcanicla- stics of the Siberian Traps that display abundant evi- dence for coal burning. Black dots mark sam- pling areas from the larger Siberian flood basalts and end-Permian extinction research project (funded under U.S. National Sci- ence Foundation grant EAR-0807585). Samples analyzed but with no coal found are labeled in gray with blue circles; those with red circles and black labels contain combusted, coked, or thermally altered coal. The majority of southern volcaniclastics analyzed contain coal, but only one from the north- ern Kotuy and Norilsk regions; in the intermedi- ate Nizhnyaya Tunguska region, three out of eight samples contained coal. Map after Svensen et al. (2009) and Malich et al. (1974); stratigraphic column after Permyakov et al. (2012). On the strati- graphic column: P1br1 and P1br2—lower and upper parts of the Burguklins- kaya Formation (Lower Permian), respectively; P2in1—lower part of the Inganbinskaya Forma- tion (Middle Permian); T1tt—Tutonchanskaya For- mation (Lower Triassic); T1uc1 and T1uc2—lower and upper parts of the the Uchamskaya For- mation (Lower Triassic), respectively. contains vesicles filled with carbon-rich mate- whole-rock bulk carbon content of as much as that span five geographically separated regions rial, malleable with a fingernail (Fig. 2). 2.7 wt%, and total organic carbon (TOC) con- had visible large organic fragments enclosed in We examined 16 samples of volcaniclastic tent from 0.01 to 1.16 wt% (Table 1; see the the rock matrix (Fig. 2) as well as organic mac- rocks from the Angara, Nizhnyaya Tunguska, Supplemental Material). As context, TOC values erals visible under the microscope (Figs. 3A– and Podkamennaya Tunguska Rivers for carbon in shales of >0.5 wt% have potential as a petro- 3N; Table S1). High values of random vitrinite content, along with six samples from northern leum source rock (Peters and Cassa, 1994); the reflectance (Ror) are indicative of higher ther- regions (Table 1; Fig. 1; detailed localities are volcaniclastic rocks studied here may exceed mal maturation of organic matter. The thermal provided in Figs. S3–S7 in the Supplemen- the carbon threshold for an economically viable maturity of the particles ranged from marginally 1 tal Material ). These rocks have a range of petrochemical source. mature to mature (Ror = 0.56%–0.83%), indi- cating the varying degree that organic matter 1Supplemental Material. Methods and detailed Characteristics of Burnt Coal and Organic was thermally altered by incorporation into the location maps for samples. Please visit https://doi Matter in Siberian Volcaniclastic Rocks magma. We divided the organic particles into .org/10.1130/GEOL.S.12425381 to access the supple- Samples were prepared as crushed-rock pol- three general maceral types based on morphol- mental material, and contact [email protected] with any questions. Additional sample material is avail- ished pellets and examined under reflected light ogy and thermal maturation (Table 1). able from the corresponding author (L.T. Elkins-Tanton) (Table 1; Table S1 in the Supplemental Mate- Type 1 macerals are coal fragments within at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA. rial). Of the 22 samples examined, 11 samples the volcaniclastic host rock that predominantly Geological Society of America | GEOLOGY | Volume 48 | Number 10 | www.gsapubs.org 987 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-pdf/48/10/986/5146678/986.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 on 02 October 2021 by guest Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-pdf/48/10/986/5146678/986.pdf 988 TABLE 1.
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