The latest Permian mass extinction, the most devastating biocrisis of the Phanerozoic, has been widely attributed to eruptions of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province, although evidence of a direct link has been scant to date. Here, we measure mercury (Hg), assumed to reflect shifts in volcanic activity, across the Permian-Triassic boundary in ten marine sections across the Northern Hemisphere. Hg concentration peaks close to the Permian-Triassic boundary suggest coupling of biotic extinction and increased volcanic activity. Additionally, Hg isotopic data for a subset of these sections provide evidence for largely atmospheric rather than terrestrial Hg sources, further linking Hg enrichment to increased volcanic activity. Hg peaks in shallow-water sections were nearly synchronous with the end-Permian extinction horizon, while those in deep-water sections occurred tens of thousands of years before the main extinction, possibly supporting a globally diachronous biotic turnover and protracted mass extinction event. Publication name | NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 10 10.1038/s41467-019-09620-0 APR 5 2019 | Author(s) | Shen, Jun; Chen, Jiubin; Algeo, Thomas J.; Yuan, Shengliu; Feng, Qinglai; Yu, Jianxin; Zhou, Lian; O'Connell, Brennan; Planavsky, Noah J. | Corresponding author(s) | SHEN Jun shenjun@cug.edu.cn China Univ Geosci, State Key Lab Geol Proc & Mineral Resources, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, Peoples R China Yale Univ, Dept Geol & Geophys, POB 6666, New Haven, CT 06520 USA | Author(s) from IGCAS | CHEN Jiubin; YUAN Shengliu | View here for the details
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