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Palaeoclimate

Aptian mystery solved

Nature Geoscience volume 9, pages 95–96 (2016)Cite this article

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The volcanic eruption that created the Ontong Java Plateau released large quantities of carbon dioxide. A reconstruction of CO2 concentrations suggests that the eruption promoted climate change and the expansion of ocean anoxia.

A dramatic series of events unfurled around the globe about 120 million years ago: temperatures surged by 4 to 8 degrees1,2, and shifts in ocean oxygen concentrations and nutrient availability caused organic matter to rapidly accumulate in ocean sediments3 during the Aptian Oceanic Anoxic Event 1a. Meanwhile, the main shell-forming plankton in the open ocean — the nannoconids — abruptly shrank in average size and degree of calcification4. The suspected culprit behind these changes looms over the plains of the deep Pacific Ocean: there lie the remnants of the most voluminous extrusion of magma identified on Earth5 — the Ontong Java Plateau. The verdict on its guilt may be in. Writing in Nature Geoscience, Naafs et al.6 find the fingerprint of a surge of CO2 to the atmosphere from the Ontong Java Plateau volcanism, and show its contribution to the Aptian ocean anoxic event. Surprisingly, the suspect is acquitted on one key charge: the CO2 release was too late, and too gradual, to have caused the calcification crisis in the nannoconids by ocean acidification.

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Figure 1: The Aptian in outcrop.

PETER W. SKELTON, THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

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  1. Heather M. Stoll is in the Departamento de Geologia, Universidad de Oviedo, Arias de Velasco, s/n 33005 Oviedo, Spain,

    Heather M. Stoll

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  1. Heather M. Stoll
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Correspondence to Heather M. Stoll.

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Stoll, H. Aptian mystery solved. Nature Geosci 9, 95–96 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2634

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