The Siberian flood basalts are among the largest volcanic eruptions in Earth history, and are approximately coincident with the Earth's largest extinction, at the end-Permian. The processes that created this flood basalt province and the connection with the extinction are not well understood. Gaining understanding of this critical event in Earth history will require the integration of many disciplines. A better understanding of the Siberian flood basalts is crucial for evaluating the controversial but persistent coincidence between flood basalt eruptions and extinctions in the last 250 million years, as well as the possibly complex causes of flood basalts and large igneous provinces.
This award will support a workshop to investigate the feasibility of and interest within the community for a new multidisciplinary field and laboratory study of the ca. 251 million-year-old Siberian flood basalts and their effect on the chemistry of the oceans, atmospheres, and climate, and on the P/TR mass extinction. The workshop will involve about 20 people to maximize representation from various disciplines as well as interaction among participants.
The key goals of the workshop are to:
o Determine the level of interest in a multidisciplinary study of the Siberian flood basalts o Outline how the key scientific questions can be addressed (formation processes, chemical and climatic effects, and possible effects on extinctions) o Assess the scientific, logistical, and collaborative feasibility of such an undertaking.
The workshop will be held at Brown University in the fall of 2005. Participants from the fields of petrology, seismology, geochronology, atmospheric chemistry, paleoclimatology, structural geology, and paleontology will attend.
