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CARBON CYCLE

Zircons reveal ancient perturbations

Nature Geoscience volume 10, pages 884–886 (2017)Cite this article

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A link between CO2 outgassing from carbonatite volcanoes during the Ediacaran and one of the most prominent carbon cycle perturbations in Earth’s history is suggested by an analysis of the trace-element composition of detrital zircons.

Today, only a single volcano, Ol Doinyo Lengai in the East African Rift, produces markedly CO2-enriched carbonatite lavas1. Due to their rarity and underlying questions regarding the efficiency of how carbon moves through the mantle2,3, the impacts of carbonatitic magmatism on the long-term carbon cycle are not entirely realized. However, writing in Nature Geoscience, Paulsen et al.4 report that they have used the age and trace-element composition of detrital zircons to identify a pulse of carbonatitic magmatism about 580 million years ago (Ma), coincident with one of the most significant carbon cycle perturbations in Earth’s history — the Shuram negative carbon isotope excursion.

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Fig. 1: Carbon isotope excursions.

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    N. Ryan McKenzie

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  1. N. Ryan McKenzie
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Correspondence to N. Ryan McKenzie.

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McKenzie, N.R. Zircons reveal ancient perturbations. Nature Geosci 10, 884–886 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-017-0023-2

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