Marine and terrestrial proxy records of environmental changes across the Triassic/Jurassic transition: A combined geochemical and palynological approach

Abstract

The Triassic–Jurassic boundary (~ 201.58 Ma; Schaltegger et al., 2008) represent a period of mass extinction. The occurrence of intense volcanic activity (Central Atlantic Magmatic Province or CAMP) and global carbon cycle perturbations is thought to be responsible for the extinction. The negative carbon isotopic excursions found at the end- Triassic suggests that large amounts of carbon were released by possibly marine methane hydrate reservoirs, possibly destabilized by CAMP and associated warming. Similarly to previous studies our results confirm the existence of two profound warming events, with the first warming pulse correlating with an episode of intense volcanism. However the new data is obtained via a geochemical and palynological approach, respectively with foraminiferal tests and palynomorphs, instead of a single proxy.