The Karoo-Ferrar eruptions
Flood basalts split southern Pangaea and pump carbon into the atmosphere.
- When
- Known to
- ± 1 million years
- Era
- Jurassic, Mesozoic
Around 183 million years ago enormous volumes of basalt erupt across what is now southern Africa and Antarctica, as Gondwana begins to break apart. Mercury and carbon isotope records tie the magmatism to a rapid release of isotopically light carbon and to increased aridity on land. It is the trigger for the ocean anoxic event that follows within thousands of years.