[6] A different study concludes the WTX lasted for about 1.4 million years (Myr) based on the chronological length of the high δ13C plateau observed over its course in the Bersek Marl Formation of Hungary.
[7] An addition of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere via the activity of the Paraná-Etendeka Large Igneous Province (PE-LIP) is generally accepted as the leading candidate for what sparked the WTX,[2] although this is not universally accepted, with some reconstructed geochronologies showing a lack of causality between the emplacement of the PE-LIP and the onset of the WTX.
[4] The prolonged, drawn out manner in which the PE-LIP erupted has been brought up as a further argument against its emplacement as the driving perturbation causing the WTX.
[10] Nannoconids experienced a decline at the onset of the WTX resulting from marine regression, but bloomed in abundance later on in the event as ocean productivity skyrocketed.
[3] Geochemical records of 187Os/188Os point to an increase in unradiogenic osmium flux into the ocean, suggesting the occurrence of silicate weathering of PE-LIP basalts during this slice of time, providing the most likely explanation for the temperature drop.