The Kalkarindji eruptions
One of the oldest large igneous provinces floods Australia with lava and poisons the oceans.
- When
- Known to
- ± 2 million years
- Era
- Cambrian, Paleozoic
Between about 514 and 513 million years ago, enormous volumes of basalt erupt across northern and central Australia. The carbon dioxide and sulfur released appear to have driven rapid global warming and spread anoxia through the shallow seas — the mechanism behind the Sinsk extinction that follows immediately. It is the earliest clear case of the pattern that recurs through the rest of Earth's history: a flood basalt province, then a mass extinction.