Volcanism, Impacts, and Mass Extinctions: Causes and Effects
Impact volcanism and mass extinctions
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Published:September 01, 2014
For asteroid or comet impacts, the mass of the projectile or bolide and its velocity control the scale of damage and secondary catastrophes induced, and the impact flux can be used to determine whether such an impact was likely to occur at the time of interest. Impact cratering processes are still orders of magnitude more deadly than volcanism when considering the potential for atmospheric loading of deleterious particulate and gaseous materials, due to the extraordinarily rapid transfer of energy. Based on impact flux, there could have been sufficient large impactors to cause one or more of the “Big Five” mass extinctions in the last 300 m.y. The best contender so far is the Chicxulub event, but this did not trigger massive volcanism in situ, and the Deccan volcanism was not located correctly to be its antipodal pair. The combination of volcanism with impact cratering is a real possibility for the end-Cretaceous extinction, but there is no established connection. This contribution reviews the wider aspects of impact volcanism, including impact fluxes, impact melting, crater thermal anomalies, and secondary impact crises like antipodal volcanism in the context of Phanerozoic mass extinctions.
- asteroids
- bolides
- catastrophes
- causes
- Cenozoic
- Chicxulub Crater
- comets
- correlation
- craters
- Cretaceous
- Deccan Traps
- decompression
- eruptions
- extinction
- geologic hazards
- global change
- impact craters
- impact features
- impact melts
- impacts
- K-T boundary
- large igneous provinces
- lower Paleocene
- Lower Triassic
- magmas
- mantle
- mantle plumes
- mass extinctions
- melting
- melts
- Mesozoic
- meteorite flux
- meteors
- natural hazards
- Ontong Java Plateau
- Pacific Ocean
- Paleocene
- paleoclimatology
- paleoenvironment
- Paleogene
- Paleozoic
- Permian
- Permian-Triassic boundary
- Phanerozoic
- stratigraphic boundary
- Tertiary
- theoretical studies
- thermal anomalies
- Triassic
- Upper Cretaceous
- Upper Permian
- volcanism
- West Pacific
- impact flux
- late heavy bombardment
- antipodal focusing