Four volcanically driven climatic perturbations led to enhanced continental weathering during the Late Triassic Carnian Pluvial Episode

• Published in: Earth and planetary science letters Vol. 626; p. 118517
• Main Authors: Zhang, Peixin, Yang, Minfang, Lu, Jing, Jiang, Zhongfeng, Vervoort, Pam, Zhou, Kai, Xu, Xiaotao, Chen, Huijuan, Wang, Ye, He, Zhen, Bian, Xiao, Shao, Longyi, Hilton, Jason
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 15.01.2024
• Subjects: Carnian Pluvial Episode; Continental chemical weathering; Late Triassic; North China; Paleoclimate; North China; Carnian Pluvial Episode; Paleoclimate; Late Triassic; Continental chemical weathering
• ISSN: 0012-821X; 1385-013X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2023.118517

•High-resolution insight on the continental chemical weathering during the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE).•Four continental chemical weathering peaks identified from the CIA* and kaolinite values.•Enhanced weathering increased nutrients input and primary production in the lake and triggered the dysoxic conditions during the CPE.•Volcanism driving climatic perturbations led to enhanced continental chemical weathering during the CPE. The arid climate of the Late Triassic was interrupted by a particularly humid episode known as the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE; ca. 234–232 million years ago). The CPE is often linked to eruptions in the Wrangellia Large Igneous Province (LIP), and is assumed to have led to global warming, enhanced weathering, water deoxygenation, and biotic changes. However, direct evidence for a temporal link between volcanic activity and chemical weathering has not yet been established due to the lack of comprehensive records across the CPE. In this study, geochemical and mineralogical analyses are applied to a lacustrine stratigraphic succession of the Jiyuan Basin (North China) that captures the CPE in high resolution. We identify four distinct pulses of enhanced continental chemical weathering characterized by elevated Chemical Index of Alteration values and kaolinite contents. These peaks in continental weathering coincide with Hg/TOC enrichments and negative organic carbon isotope excursions that mark four short (∼400 kyr) but intense pulses of Wrangellia LIP volcanism. In combination with signs of increased humidity, our findings provide direct and independent evidence that Wrangellia LIP eruptions significantly altered CPE chemical weathering rates in response to global warming and wetting. The lake experienced eutrophication and water deoxygenation after each volcanic pulse but the swift recovery of carbon isotopes suggests that the system rapidly returned to conditions prior to the volcanic perturbation. Organic carbon burial facilitated by widespread dysoxic and anoxic waters, and CO2 consumption via enhanced weathering likely played crucial roles in the rapid climatic recovery after each volcanic pulse.