An extraterrestrial trigger for the Early Cretaceous massive volcanism? Evidence from the paleo-Tethys Ocean

The Early Cretaceous Greater Ontong Java Event in the Pacific Ocean may have covered ca. 1% of the Earth's surface with volcanism. It has puzzled scientists trying to explain its origin by several mechanisms possible on Earth, leading others to propose an extraterrestrial trigger to explain this event. A large oceanic extraterrestrial impact causing such voluminous volcanism may have traces of its distal ejecta in sedimentary rocks around the basin, including the paleo-Tethys Ocean which was then contiguous with the Pacific Ocean. The contemporaneous marine sequence at central Italy, containing the sedimentary expression of a global oceanic anoxic event (OAE1a), may have recorded such ocurrence as indicated by two stratigraphic intervals with 187Os/188Os indicative of meteoritic influence. Here we show, for the first time, that platinum group element abundances and inter-element ratios in this paleo-Tethyan marine sequence provide no evidence for an extraterrestrial trigger for the Early Cretaceous massive volcanism

Climate-correlated variations in seawater Os-187/Os-188 over the past 200,000 yr: Evidence from the Cariaco Basin, Venezuela

International audienceA high resolution record of seawater osmium isotopic composition (35 samples over the past 191,000 yr) has been obtained from sediments from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 165 Site 1002 in the Cariaco Basin, Venezuela. Strong correlations are observed between 187Os/188Os and both the local and global oxygen isotopic records, with less radiogenic values observed during glacial intervals. In conjunction with previous analyses of sediments from the East Pacific Rise, the Santa Barbara Basin, and the Japan Sea, the data demonstrate conclusively that there have been ocean-wide changes in seawater 187Os/188Os over the Pleistocene. Global seawater excursions to relatively unradiogenic 187Os/188Os, indicating decreased continental inputs, occur during cold intervals, times of increased aridity and increased ice cover of old (radiogenic) continental masses. The data thus indicate a direct climatic control on chemical weathering rates and/or composition of weathering products on a glacial­interglacial timescale

Osmium concentration and isotope composition of ODP Hole 165-1002C (Table 1)

A high resolution record of seawater osmium isotopic composition (35 samples over the past 191,000 yr) has been obtained from sediments from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 165 Site 1002 in the Cariaco Basin, Venezuela. Strong correlations are observed between 187Os/188Os and both the local and global oxygen isotopic records, with less radiogenic values observed during glacial intervals. In conjunction with previous analyses of sediments from the East Pacific Rise, the Santa Barbara Basin, and the Japan Sea, the data demonstrate conclusively that there have been ocean-wide changes in seawater 187Os/188Os over the Pleistocene. Global seawater excursions to relatively unradiogenic 187Os/188Os, indicating decreased continental inputs, occur during cold intervals, times of increased aridity and increased ice cover of old (radiogenic) continental masses. The data thus indicate a direct climatic control on chemical weathering rates and/or composition of weathering products on a glacial-interglacial timescale