Large mass-independent sulphur isotope anomalies link stratospheric volcanism to the Late Ordovician mass extinction

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 2297 - 8
• Main Authors: Hu, Dongping, Li, Menghan, Zhang, Xiaolin, Turchyn, Alexandra V, Gong, Yizhe, Shen, Yanan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 08.05.2020; Nature Publishing Group UK; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Anomalies; Anoxia; Climate change; Composition; Extinction; Geological time; Geology; Global cooling; Global warming; Mass extinctions; Ordovician; Pyrite; Sedimentary rocks; Sulfur; Sulfur isotopes; Volcanic activity; Volcanic eruptions
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16228-2

Volcanic eruptions are thought to be a key driver of rapid climate perturbations over geological time, such as global cooling, global warming, and changes in ocean chemistry. However, identification of stratospheric volcanic eruptions in the geological record and their causal link to the mass extinction events during the past 540 million years remains challenging. Here we report unexpected, large mass-independent sulphur isotopic compositions of pyrite with Δ S of up to 0.91‰ in Late Ordovician sedimentary rocks from South China. The magnitude of the Δ S is similar to that discovered in ice core sulphate originating from stratospheric volcanism. The coincidence between the large Δ S and the first pulse of the Late Ordovician mass extinction about 445 million years ago suggests that stratospheric volcanic eruptions may have contributed to synergetic environmental deteriorations such as prolonged climatic perturbations and oceanic anoxia, related to the mass extinction.