Longman, J., Mills, B.J.W. orcid.org/0000-0002-9141-0931 and Merdith, A.S. (2025) Limited long-term cooling effects of Pangaean flood basalt weathering. Nature Communications, 16. 4813. ISSN 2041-1723
Abstract
The emplacement of large igneous provinces (LIPs) is known to be a driver of climate change in Earth’s past. However, the balance of climate warming through CO2 emission and cooling through weathering is poorly understood. To better understand the role of LIP emplacement on long-term climate change, here we utilize the SCION coupled climate-biogeochemical model which considers the impact of LIPs through degassing of CO2 and enhancement of local continental weathering rates. This approach results in better correspondence between the modelled output and proxy reconstructions of the period (especially for seawater Sr isotope composition) when compared to previous modelling studies. Of the seven LIPs during the breakup phase of Pangaea (approximately 300–150 Ma), only the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) drives noticeable long-term cooling in the model, a minor effect (between 1-2 °C) despite emplacement of a very large surface area in the humid tropics. Similarly, only the CAMP imparts a significant change in the long-term Sr isotope record whereas the other LIPs of this period do not. Due to limited areal extents, and emplacement outside tropical weathering zones, we conclude most LIPs have no significant global cooling effect on multimillion year timescales.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/X011208/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 29 May 2025 16:16 |
Last Modified: | 29 May 2025 16:16 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41467-025-59480-0 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:226745 |