New Research Reveals Japanese and Australian Geologists Uncover Evidence Linking Oceanic Igneous Provinces to Low-Order Extinction Events During the Triassic Period
Early Earth. Image credit: Peter Sawyer/Smithsonian Institution.
“Mass extinctions represent profoundly catastrophic events in the history of Earth,” stated Dr. Jiang Jun Huang along with a team of geologists from Jilin University and Curtin University.
“While numerous mass extinctions have shaped Earth’s evolutionary timeline, five major events are particularly notable.”
“These pivotal extinctions radically altered the trajectory of life on our planet.”
“Besides the five major mass extinction events, numerous sub-extinctions frequently occur, such as the Norian-Rhaetian extinction of the Triassic period.”
“Although the causes of five major extinction events are well documented, the triggers of smaller, lower-order extinctions remain largely speculative.”
In this groundbreaking study, the researchers investigated remnants of oceanic islands, seamounts, and plateaus on the Tibetan Plateau, mapping the evolution of the Meso-Tethyan and Neo-Tethyan oceans.
Throughout the Triassic, three significant episodes of oceanic large igneous provinces (LIPs) materialized between 250 and 248 million years ago, 233 and 231 million years ago, and 210 and 208 million years ago.
By synthesizing the geological records of these LIP episodes with extensive Triassic geological datasets, the team established a link between marine LIPs and at least four extinctions in marine life, which were spurred by subsequent anoxic-oxic events.
“Marine LIPs account for half of the identifiable geologically induced extinctions during the Triassic,” the scientists reported.
“This suggests that oceanic LIPs were the primary initiators of the Triassic extinction events.”
“Although eruptions related to oceanic LIPs are frequent, evidence for ancient occurrences may significantly diminish due to subduction processes during the closure of ocean basins.”
“This destruction complicates the identification of such records, and even when identified, interpreting and dating them accurately poses challenges.”
“Orogenic belts, remnants of long-extinct oceanic basins, may harbor many unidentified ‘ghost’ ocean LIPs, whose eruptions likely played a critical role in other Phanerozoic extinctions, which remain under-recognized in current Earth system models.”
The team’s study is published in the journal Geology.
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Jian Jun Fan et al., “Large Oceanic Igneous Provinces: A Major Driver of Repeated Triassic Extinctions,” Geology, published online on January 20, 2026. doi: 10.1130/G53406.1
Source: www.sci.news
