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Enhanced wildfire at the Frasnian-Famennian boundary and its implications for O2 level and F-F mass extinction: evidence from organic petrology and Os isotope stratigraphy

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

In this study, organic petrology and Osmium isotope (187Os/188Os) stratigraphy, major and trace element, and programmed pyrolysis analysis were performed on five outcrop samples from western New York, USA. Seawater Os isotope composition is controlled by radiogenic input from weathering of the ancient land and nonradiogenic input from extraterrestrial and hydrothermal sources (Peucker-Ehrenbrink and Ravizza, 2000). Os is complexed by the organic matter present at the time of deposition without isotope fractionation. Seawater Os isotope composition is reconstructed by analysing the Os isotope composition of the organic-rich sedimentary rock (Turgeon et al., 2007). The short residence time of Os (10 – 50 kyrs) in seawater makes it homogenised in the ocean, thus the Os isotope record from an open marine setting is representative of the global signal (Peucker-Ehrenbrink and Ravizza, 2000; Rooney et al., 2016). Here, we report increased inertinite as evidence for enhanced wildfire events at the F-F boundary and give implications on the F-F mass extinction. O2 level is estimated to be around (24.8%) with the average inertinite abundance data. Unlike previously thought, our findings support a model with higher atmospheric oxygen level (Berner et al., 2003) during the Late Frasnian to early Famennian (Late Devonian). The atmospheric oxygen level may have reached the present level (21 %) at late Frasnian (25 Myrs earlier than previous thought). Our Osi record excludes extra-terrestrial impact or hydrothermal event as a trigger for the mass extinction. Also, we give implications on the mechanism of Re-Os enrichment and fractionation in the organic-rich sedimentary rocks.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/93d2f964fde2b2625b5256de7d363a8f
Identifier USGS:5ce2cdfce4b0f7ebfdfb8b41
Data Last Modified 20200819
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id a8339b64-5d43-4eba-b698-8a0b5f13a5e9
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -79.164265,42.459709,-78.122986,42.652212
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash eb224cdc556acc76789e229cef1342563eb50a5f5b2edceca4f7f96008cbf351
Source Schema Version 1.1
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