Contact metamorphism, halocarbons, and environmental crises of the past

Henrik Svensen; Norbert Schmidbauer; Marco Roscher; Frode Stordal; Sverre Planke

doi:10.1071/EN09118

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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Contact metamorphism, halocarbons, and environmental crises of the past

Henrik Svensen ^A ^E , Norbert Schmidbauer ^B , Marco Roscher ^A , Frode Stordal ^C and Sverre Planke ^A ^D

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Physics of Geological Processes (PGP), University of Oslo, PO Box 1048 Blindern, NO-0316 Oslo, Norway.

^B Norwegian Institute for Air Research, PO Box 100, NO-2027 Kjeller, Norway.

^C Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1047 Blindern, NO-0316 Oslo, Norway.

^D Volcanic Basin Petroleum Research (VBPR), Oslo Research Park, NO-0349 Oslo, Norway.

^E Corresponding author. Email: hensven@fys.uio.no

Environmental Chemistry 6(6) 466-471 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN09118
Submitted: 17 September 2009 Accepted: 17 November 2009 Published: 18 December 2009

Environmental context. What caused the biggest known mass extinction on Earth ~252 million years ago? A possible killer mechanism was the release of specific gases into the atmosphere, which eventually led to destruction of the ozone layer. This is now supported by new laboratory experiments in which ozone-destructing gases were generated when heating rocks from East Siberia (Russia) – reconstructing what happened naturally in Siberia during explosive gas eruptions 252 million years ago.

Abstract. What triggered the largest know mass extinction at the Permian–Triassic boundary 252 million years ago, when 95% of the species in the oceans disappeared? New geological data suggest that eruptions of carbon (CH₄, CO₂) and halocarbon (CH₃Cl and CH₃Br) gases from the vast sedimentary basins of east Siberia could have triggered a period with global warming (5°–10°C) and terrestrial mass extinction. The gases were generated during contact metamorphism of sedimentary rocks around 1200°C hot igneous intrusions. One of the suggested end-Permian extinction mechanisms is the extreme ultraviolet radiation (UV-B) caused by a prolonged destruction of stratospheric ozone induced by the emitted halocarbons. This hypothesis is supported by a new set of experiments, where natural rock salt samples from Siberia were heated to 275°C. Among the gases generated during heating are methyl chloride (CH₃Cl) and methyl bromide (CH₃Br). These findings open up new possibilities for investigating ancient environmental crises.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a Centre of Excellence grant to Physics of Geological Processes, by a Young Outstanding Researcher grant and a PetroMaks grant to H. Svensen, all from the Norwegian Research Council. We thank the editors of Environmental Chemistry for inviting us to submit this paper, Alexander G. Polozov, Linda Elkins-Tanton and Nick Arndt for discussions about the Siberian Traps and the end-Permian crisis, Claus Nielsen for discussions about halocarbons, and three anonymous referees for suggestions about how to improve the manuscript.

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Contact metamorphism, halocarbons, and environmental crises of the past

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