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Instruction: ocean ridges to form the entire oceanic

Always save your files using the following crust, so the production rate of seafloor
format: spreading is given by the formula

SurnameInitials_Course_ActivityNo (see Production rate = spreading rate x crustal
example) thickness x ridge length

PaguicanEM_Geol100_PracticingGeology9 The fastest spreading we see today is
along the East Pacific Rise near the
Are the Siberian Traps a smoking gun equator, where the Pacific Plate is
of mass extinction? separating from the Nazca Plate at an
average rate of about 140 mm/year, or
1.4 x 10-4 km/year, creating a basaltic
The mass extinction at the end of the crust with an average thickness of 7 km.
Permian period, dated at 251 million The length of the Pacific-Nazca plate
years ago, marks the transition from the boundary is about 3600 km, so the
Paleozoic era to the Mesozoic era. The production rate along this spreading
flood basalts of Siberia—the product of center is
the largest continental eruption in the
Phanerozoic eon—have also been dated 1.4 ×10−4 km / year × 7km × 3600km = 3.5km 3 / year
at 251 million years ago. Is this just a
coincidence, or was the eruption of the From this calculation, we see that the
flood basalts responsible for the end– Siberian eruption produced basalt at a
Permian mass extinction? rate comparable to that of the entire
Pacific-Nazca plate boundary, the largest
Let’s consider the size and rate of the magma factory on Earth today!
Siberian eruption. Geologic mapping of
these flood basalts, called the Siberian You can sail on the tropical sea surface
Traps, shows that they once extended over the Pacific-Nazca plate boundary and
across much of the Siberian platform and be completely unaware of the magmatic
craton, covering an area exceeding 4 activity deep beneath you. Most of the
million square kilometers. Although much magma generated by the seafloor
has been eroded away or buried beneath spreading solidifies as igneous intrusions
younger sediments, the total volume of to form the basaltic dikes and massive
the basalts must have originally exceeded gabbros of the oceanic crust (see Key
2 million cubic kilometers and may have Figure 4.13 of the topic reading). The
been as much as 4 million cubic basalts that are extruded onto the
kilometers. Isotopic dating indicates that seafloor are quickly quenched by
the basalts were extruded over a period seawater to produce pillow lavas, and the
of about 1 million years, implying an gases that are emitted dissolve into the
average eruption rate of 2 to 4 km3/year. ocean.


To appreciate how large this rate really is, But if you were visiting Siberia about 251
we can compare it with the volcanism at million years ago, you would probably not
rapidly diverging plate boundaries. be so comfortable. The Siberian basalts
Enough basalt is extruded along mid-
were erupted directly onto the land meteorite impact or a sudden release of
surface through fissures in the gases from the ocean. However, recent
continental crust, flooding millions of isotopic dating with improved techniques
square kilometers. This exceptionally has shown that the Siberian volcanism
rapid extrusion of lavas would have occurred immediately before or during
generated huge pyroclastic deposits— the end–Permian mass extinction. The
much more than typical flood basalt finding that these extreme events so
eruptions, such as those of the Columbia precisely coincide has convinced many
Plateau—and it would also have more geologists that the Siberian Traps
discharged massive amounts of ash and are the “smoking gun” behind the largest
gases, including carbon doxide and killing of species in Earth history.
methane, into the atmosphere. Such an
eruption could have trigerred changes in Bonus Problem:
the Earth’s climate of a magnitude that The Big Island of Hawaii, which has a total
might have led to the end–Permian mass rock volume of about 100,000 km3, has
extinction, in which 95% of the species been formed by a series of basaltic
living at the time were completely wiped eruptions over the last 1 million years.
out. Calculate the production rate of the
Hawaiian basalts and compare it with that
Some geologists have argued for years of the Siberian Traps. What length of the
that the end–Permian mass extinction Nazca-Pacific Plate boundary produces
was the result of this intense Siberian basalt at a rate equivalent to the Hawaiian
volcanism, possibly caused by the sudden spot?
arrival of a “plume head” at Earth’s
surface (see Figure 12.23 of the topic Practicing Geology Essay from:
reading). Others have preferred Understanding Earth; J. Krotzinger &
alternative hypotheses, such as a T. Jordan, 2010, 6th Ed


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