Surprising Discovery Shows How Slowing of Continental Plate Movement Controlled Earth’s Largest Volcanic Events



Many of the most destructive extinction events in Earth's history can be traced back to significant volcanic events that occurred millions of years ago and caused significant climatic and biological disruption. Scientists have now provided additional information regarding the date and most likely origin of these catastrophic volcanic episodes.

Surprisingly, the new research reveals that the crucial event that allowed magma to come to the Earth's surface and cause the catastrophic knock-on effects was a slowing of continental plate movement. Today, September 9, 2022, the work will be published in the prestigious international journal Science Advances.

Large Igneous Provinces, or significant volcanic eruptions, have occurred throughout Earth's history (LIPs). The most significant of these led to significant increases in atmospheric carbon emissions, which warmed Earth's climate, triggered extraordinary changes in ecosystems, and brought about massive extinctions on land and in the oceans.

An international group of researchers, including scientists from Trinity College Dublin's School of Natural Sciences, were able to connect two significant events that occurred around 183 million years ago using chemical information from ancient mudstone deposits obtained from a 1.5 km-deep (0.9 mile-deep) borehole in Wales (the Toarcian period).

The research team found that the occurrence of significant volcanic activity and associated greenhouse gas release on the southern hemisphere, in what is now known as southern Africa, Antarctica, and Australia, directly coincided with this time period, which was marked by some of the most severe climatic and environmental changes ever.

The main underlying geological process that appeared to influence the timing and beginning of this volcanic outburst and others of great magnitude was found through further research and, more significantly, the scientists' plate reconstruction models.

The team was directed by Assistant Professor Micha Ruhl from Trinity's School of Natural Sciences. He stated:

Scientists have long believed that the onset of molten volcanic rock, or magma, rising from the Earth's interior as mantle plumes was the cause of such volcanic activity, but new evidence reveals that the normal rate of continental plate movement of several centimeters per year effectively prevents magma from penetrating Earth's continental crust.

"It appears that the only time that magmas from mantle plumes can effectively reach the surface and cause big huge igneous province volcano eruptions with their accompanying climatic perturbations and mass extinctions is when the pace of continental plate movement slows down to almost nil.

"Crucially, further analysis reveals that a decrease in continental plate movement likely controlled the onset and duration of many of the significant volcanic events throughout Earth's history, making it a fundamental process in controlling the evolution of climate and life at Earth's surface throughout this planet's history."

Researchers can distinguish between the various processes that regulate the causes and effects of global carbon cycle change and constrain fundamental Earth system processes that regulate tipping points in the Earth's climate system by studying past global change events, such as those in the Toarcian.

"Reduced plate motion affected timing of Early Jurassic Karoo-Ferrar big igneous province volcanism" is a good source. Science Advances, September 9, 2022.

The study was carried out as part of the Early Jurassic Earth System and Timescale (JET) project of the International Continental Drilling Program (ICDP), with funding provided by the SFI Research Centre in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG), the Natural Environment Research Council UK (NERC), the National Science Foundation China, and the EU Horizon 2020 initiative.

By TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN 

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