An extremely brief end Ordovician mass extinction linked to abrupt onset of glaciation

Ling, Ming-Xing; Zhan, Ren-Bin; Wang, Guang-Xu; Wang, Yi; Amelin, Yuri; Tang, Peng; Liu, Jian-Bo; Jin, Jisuo; Huang, Bing; Wu, Rong-Chang; Xue, Shuo; Fu, Bin; Bennett, Vickie C.; Wei, Xin; Luan, Xiao-Cong; Finnegan, Seth; Harper, David A.T.; Rong, Jia-Yu

Abstract

The end Ordovician mass extinction (EOME) was the second most severe biotic crisis in Phanerozoic, and has been widely linked to a major glaciation. However, robust geochronology of this interval is still lacking. Here we present four successive high-precision zircon U–Pb dates by isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS) for biostratigraphically well-constrained K-bentonites of a continuous Ordovician-Silurian boundary section at Wanhe, SW China. They include 444.65 ± 0.22 Ma (middle Dicellograptus complexus Biozone), 444.06 ± 0.20 Ma (lower Paraorthograptus pacificus Biozone), 443.81 ± 0.24 Ma (upper Tangyagraptus typicus Subzone), and 442.99 ± 0.17 Ma (upper Metabolograptus extraordinarius Biozone). Calculations based on sedimentation rates suggest a duration of 0.47 ± 0.34 Ma for the Hirnantian Stage, which is much shorter than previously thought (1.4 ± 2.05 Ma in the International Chronostratigraphic Chart ver. 2019/05). The new data also constrain the Hirnantian glacial maximum to ∼0.2 Ma, supporting that its brevity and intensity probably triggered the EOME.

Citation

Ling, M.-X., Zhan, R.-B., Wang, G.-X., Wang, Y., Amelin, Y., Tang, P., Liu, J.-B., Jin, J., Huang, B., Wu, R.-C., Xue, S., Fu, B., Bennett, V. C., Wei, X., Luan, X.-C., Finnegan, S., Harper, D. A., & Rong, J.-Y. (2019). An extremely brief end Ordovician mass extinction linked to abrupt onset of glaciation. Solid earth sciences, 4(4), 190-198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sesci.2019.11.001

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 10, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Dec 9, 2019
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2019
• Deposit Date: Dec 12, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 9, 2020
• Journal: Solid Earth Sciences.
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 190-198
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sesci.2019.11.001
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1311813