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Selective environmental stress from sulphur emitted by continental flood basalt eruptions

Nature Geoscience volume 9, pages 77–82 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Several biotic crises during the past 300 million years have been linked to episodes of continental flood basalt volcanism, and in particular to the release of massive quantities of magmatic sulphur gas species. Flood basalt provinces were typically formed by numerous individual eruptions, each lasting years to decades. However, the environmental impact of these eruptions may have been limited by the occurrence of quiescent periods that lasted hundreds to thousands of years. Here we use a global aerosol model to quantify the sulphur-induced environmental effects of individual, decade-long flood basalt eruptions representative of the Columbia River Basalt Group, 16.5–14.5 million years ago, and the Deccan Traps, 65 million years ago. For a decade-long eruption of Deccan scale, we calculate a decadal-mean reduction in global surface temperature of 4.5 K, which would recover within 50 years after an eruption ceased unless climate feedbacks were very different in deep-time climates. Acid mists and fogs could have caused immediate damage to vegetation in some regions, but acid-sensitive land and marine ecosystems were well-buffered against volcanic sulphur deposition effects even during century-long eruptions. We conclude that magmatic sulphur from flood basalt eruptions would have caused a biotic crisis only if eruption frequencies and lava discharge rates had been high and sustained for several centuries at a time.

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Figure 1: Global mean surface temperature change and its dependence on eruption duration and mass of SO2 emitted.
Figure 2: Annual latitudinal-mean volcanic acid deposition rates and acid mist concentrations for CFB-scale eruptions compared with standards to protect soils, vegetation and waters from the effects of acid deposition (‘critical loads’) and direct exposure to pollutants (‘critical levels’)36.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Haywood for providing Miocene and Late Cretaceous surface albedo fields. A.S. was supported by an Academic Research Fellowship from the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds. P.M.F. and K.S.C. were supported by a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award. S.S. was supported by an award from the Larsen Funds, University of California-Berkeley.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

    Anja Schmidt, Piers M. Forster, Alexandru Rap, Marjorie Wilson, Paul B. Wignall & Kenneth S. Carslaw

  2. Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AB, UK

    Richard A. Skeffington

  3. Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, Askja, Sturlugata 7 IS101 Reykjavik, Iceland,

    Thorvaldur Thordarson

  4. School of GeoSciences, Grant Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FE, UK

    Thorvaldur Thordarson

  5. Department of Environment, Earth and Ecosystems, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK

    Stephen Self

  6. Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94709, USA

    Stephen Self

  7. School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Road Bristol BS8 1SS, UK,

    Andy Ridgwell

  8. Department of Earth Sciences, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, California 92507, USA

    Andy Ridgwell

  9. Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Penicuik EH26 0Q8, UK

    David Fowler

  10. National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

    Graham W. Mann

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Contributions

A.S. and K.S.C. devised the study. A.S. ran and analysed the model simulations and led the interpretation. A.S., T.T., S.S., M.W., R.A.S. and A. Ridgwell designed model experiments. R.A.S. ran the soil and water acidification model simulations and interpreted the results together with A.S., and D.F. advised on the critical load calculations. A. Ridgwell ran the GENIE model and interpreted the results. A.S. and P.M.F. calculated the SO2 radiative forcing and ran the energy budget model. A.Rap ran the radiative transfer code. A.S. led the writing and all authors contributed to the editing of the manuscript and approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Anja Schmidt.

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Schmidt, A., Skeffington, R., Thordarson, T. et al. Selective environmental stress from sulphur emitted by continental flood basalt eruptions. Nature Geosci 9, 77–82 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2588

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