Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Permian-Triassic Superanoxic Event - The Preference of Photic Zone Euxinia

According to the authors¹ biomarker and iron speciation analysis, as well as carbon and sulphur date, of the Hovea-3 core, from the Perth Basin, Western Australia, indicated that during the Permian-Triassic Superanoxic Event euxinic conditions were prevalent in the palaeowater column. There was a particular abundance at the Late Permian-Early Triassic boundary of biomarkers that are diagnostic for anoxigenic photosynthesis by Chlorobiaceae. It has also been found that in the contemporaneous seas off South China similar conditions also prevailed. According to the authors¹ their evidence of photo zone euxinic conditions being widespread suggests sulphide toxicity was a driver of the extinction event, as well as a factor in the protracted recovery that followed.

1. Grice, Kliti, Changqun Cao, Gordon D. Love, Michael E. Böttcher, Richard J. Twitchett, Emmanuelle Grosjean, Roger E. Summons, et al. "Photic Zone Euxinia During the Permian-Triassic Superanoxic Event." Science 307, no. 5710 (February 4, 2005 2005): 706-09.