Examining the volcanism-extinction link: an end-Guadalupian case study

火山活动会导致物种灭绝吗？我们不知道这个问题的答案，但来自岩石的证据提供了一些有趣的线索。因此，人们已经认识到，过去3亿年的所有灭绝事件都与主要的火山爆发相吻合。这些喷发包括巨大的玄武岩流，涉及100或1000立方公里的熔岩，从地面悄悄渗出，加上一些更猛烈的喷发，将火山灰散布到很远的地方。要确定这些类型的喷发中哪一种与火山喷发在时间上关系最密切，已经证明是非常困难的，因为化石证据通常是在远离火山活动发生地的地方发现的。该项目将通过研究2.6亿年前火山活动与灭绝之间联系的一个独特例子来解决这一问题，当时熔岩和灰烬反复喷发到当今中国的浅海中。在这些海洋中形成的石灰岩含有丰富的化石和灾难性灭绝的证据。通过研究这些中国岩石，将有可能第一次直接研究同一个地方的火山活动和灭绝故事。这项工作将辅之以石灰岩中碳和硫同位素的研究，这将使科学家能够确定这一期间海洋状况的变化。

Is volcanism capable of causing species to go extinct? We don't know the answer to this question but evidence from rocks provides some intriguing clues. Thus, it has been recognised that all the extinction events of the past 300 million years coincide with major volcanic eruptions. These eruptions consisted of huge flows of basalt, involving 100s or 1000s of cubic kilometres of lava, that quietly oozed from the ground, plus some much more violent eruptions that scattered volcanic ash over great distances. Working out which of these styles of eruption are most closely associated, in time, with the extinctions has proved very difficult because the fossil evidence is usually found far away from where the volcanism occurred. This project will address this problem by studying a unique example of the volcanism-extinction link from 260 million years ago when lavas and ashes were repeatedly erupted into shallow seas in present-day China. The limestones that formed in these seas contain abundant fossils and evidence of a catastrophic extinction. By studying these Chinese rocks it will be possible, for the first time, to study directly both the volcanism and extinction story in the same place. The work will be supplemented with studies of carbon and sulphur isotopes from the limestones which will allow the scientists to determine changes in the state of the oceans during this interval.