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| Carnian Pluvial Event | |
|---|---|
| Name | Carnian Pluvial Event |
| Date | Late Triassic (Carnian) |
| Location | Global |
| Type | Climatic perturbation |
Carnian Pluvial Event The Carnian Pluvial Event was a major Late Triassic climatic perturbation associated with marked shifts in hydrology, sedimentation, and biotic turnover during the Carnian stage. It is recognized across marine and continental records from basins such as the Dolomites, Karoo Basin, and Newark Basin, and is linked temporally to volcanic episodes and faunal radiations documented in stratigraphic sequences. Researchers from institutions including the Natural History Museum, London, University of California, and University of Milan have integrated paleontological, geochemical, and sedimentological datasets to characterize its extent.
The event is characterized by increased precipitation, enhanced siliciclastic input, and widespread environmental change recorded in formations like the Jiaochang Formation, Santa Maria Formation, and Calcare di Zorzino. Evidence for hydrological intensification and ecosystem restructuring appears in palynological assemblages studied by teams from the Smithsonian Institution and sedimentary facies analyses from the British Geological Survey. Correlative work by researchers affiliated with the Università degli Studi di Padova and the University of Freiburg has refined staging using ammonoid biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy.
High-resolution correlations place the perturbation within the Carnian, particularly the Julian substage to Tuvalian substage boundary interval. Stratigraphic markers include shifts in sedimentation seen in the Dolomites, isotope excursions in sections like the Pietra Verde Formation, and fossil turnovers documented in the Ischigualasto Formation and Chañares Formation. Researchers employ biostratigraphic ties using ammonites, conodonts, and palynomorphs alongside chronostratigraphic constraints from tuff beds correlated to radiometric ages produced by groups at the GEOTOP Research Centre and U.S. Geological Survey.
Proposed drivers involve large igneous province volcanism, notably pulses from the Wrangellia Large Igneous Province and temporal association with volcanic activity recorded in the Stikinia terrane and North American Cordillera. Volcanogenic greenhouse gas release, sulfide aerosol forcing, and weathering feedbacks mediated by erosion of the Tethys margins are central mechanisms explored by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. Orbital forcing hypotheses referencing work by astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and climate modeling conducted at the Met Office Hadley Centre have been invoked to explain pacing and amplitude of humid phases.
Climatic consequences included intensified monsoonal patterns, expansion of humid belts, and transient warming indicated in isotopic work from carbonate platforms and soil carbonates in the Karoo Basin, Khorat Plateau, and Isla de los Estados. Sedimentary responses encompassed increased fluvial deposition, estuarine expansion, and marine anoxia recorded in basins such as the Ferrar Basin and Neuquén Basin. Studies by teams at the University of São Paulo and Clermont Auvergne University link these changes to ecosystem stress and altered nutrient cycling affecting marine productivity in the Panthalassa margins.
Biotic consequences included extinctions, radiations, and biogeographic reorganizations across groups like ammonoids, conodonts, bivalves, brachiopods, terrestrial vertebrates, and early dinosaur lineages. Floral turnover is evident in palynological shifts from gymnosperm-dominated assemblages to increased hygrophilous taxa documented in the Dinarides and Anatolia. Marine anoxia and habitat loss coincided with declines in benthic faunas in sections studied by the Natural History Museum Vienna and radiations among neoselachian sharks and teleosts noted in collections at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. Continental vertebrate assemblages in the Ischigualasto Formation and Santa Maria Formation show diversification patterns among archosaurs contemporaneous with post-event recovery and opportunistic speciation.
Key proxies include negative carbon isotope excursions in organic and carbonate substrates measured by groups at ETH Zurich and the University of Oxford, mercury anomalies interpreted as volcanogenic markers analyzed by laboratories at the University of Leicester, and sulfur isotope shifts recorded in evaporite sequences from the Mediterranean margin. Clay mineralogy indicating increased weathering has been reported from cores archived at the British Antarctic Survey, while biomarkers and compound-specific isotopes recovered by teams at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography provide evidence for shifts in productivity and redox state.
Global correlation relies on integrating records from widely separated basins including the Alpine region, South China Block, Gondwana, and Laurasia. Regional studies in the Dolomites, Tethyan realm, Karoo Basin, Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin, and North America provide complementary perspectives that, when tied by ammonoid biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, and radiometric dates from groups at the University of Padua and the University of Buenos Aires, support a broadly synchronous, multi-phased event. Ongoing synthesis efforts by consortia affiliated with the International Association of Sedimentologists and the European Geosciences Union aim to refine temporal resolution and causal links.
Category:Triassic events