Siberian Traps

[1][2][3][4] Subsequent periods of Siberian Traps activity have been linked to a number of smaller biotic crises, including the Smithian-Spathian, Olenekian-Anisian, Middle-Late Anisian, and Anisian-Ladinian extinction events.

[6] The Siberian traps are underlain by the Tungus Syneclise, a large sedimentary basin containing thick sequences of Early-Mid-Paleozoic-aged carbonate and evaporite deposits, as well as Carboniferous-Permian-aged coal-bearing clastic rocks.

[14] Recent research has highlighted the impact of vegetative deposition in the preceding Carboniferous period on the severity of the disruption to the carbon cycle.

[19] Palaeontological evidence further indicates that the global distribution of tetrapods vanished between latitudes approximating 40° south to 30° north, with very rare exceptions in the region of Pangaea that is today Utah.

[21] In equatorial Pangaea, the establishment of conifer-dominated forests was not until the end of the Spathian, and the first coals at these latitudes did not appear until the Carnian, around 15 million years after their end-Permian disappearance.

[22] The volcanism that occurred in the Siberian Traps resulted in copious amounts of magma being ejected from the Earth's crust—leaving permanent traces of rock from the same time period of the mass extinction that can be examined today.

Eliminating the variability due to lead, the CA-TIMS age-dating technique allowed uranium within the zircon to be the centre focus in linking the volcanism in the Siberian Traps that resulted in high amounts of magmatic material with the Permian–Triassic mass extinction.

[25] Feldspar and biotite were specifically used to focus on the samples' ages and duration of the presence of magma from the volcanic event in the Siberian Traps.

[25] The majority of the basalt and gabbro samples dated to 250 million years ago, covered a surface area of 5,000,000 square kilometres (1,900,000 sq mi) on the Siberian Traps,[25] and occurred within a short period of time with rapid rock solidification and cooling.