Speaker: Dr. Jeremy Williams

The Permian-Triassic (PT) extinction also known as the Great Dying Event is regarded as the largest extinction in Earth’s history.  While a number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the cause, tempo, and severity of the mass extinction they are often contradictory. These hypotheses are based on data from a variety marine and terrestrial PT sections distributed globally. The mass extinction research community set a Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for each mass extinction. The GSSP section is considered the most accurate, continuous, and reliable section for studying a mass extinction. In the case of the PT extinction, the GSSP section is the marine (Paleo-Tethys) Meishan section located in Changxing County, Zhejiang Province, South China. Despite the selection of this section as the GSSP, many other marine PT sections are paleontologically, sedimentologically, and geochemically distinct and, in some cases, more complete (e.g. Serbia and Hungary).

In the presentation, we look at the geochemical signatures of two PT Sections, Serbia and Hungary that present the Western Tethys Ocean to understand the response and tempo of the PT Extinction. Although, there are similarities to GSSP Meishan, there are vastly different geochemical responses inferring that the PT Extinction is more complex than previously thought.