Biostratigraphic Age Constrains on Pyroclastic Successions and Dynamics of the Late Permian Volcanism in South China

Late Permian volcanism undoubtedly played an important role in triggering the end-Permian mass extinction and delaying biotic recovery during the Early Triassic. However, the understanding of both tectonic setting and specific process of volcanism remains ambiguous; in particular, the types of pyroclastic rocks and their spatiotemporal distribution in South China have been very limitedly studied. These issues are key to future simulation-based quantitative estimation of the paleoecological effects of volcanism, including the amount of released CO2 and resulting magnitude of temperature increase, the intensity of eutrophication and oxygen depletion, the toxification, as well as how these factors contributed to the mass extinction. In this study, we investigated the spatial distribution of the upper Permian and Permian-Triassic transitional pyroclastic rocks, analyzed their geological ages and tectonic setting, and proposed a new model for interpreting the tectonic setting and dynamics of volcanism. This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42230205)