NEWS NOTES ON SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCESCarnian Pluvial Episodehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnian_pluvial_episodeThe Carnian pluvial episode...
Published on by Tim Smith, Employee at Retiree & P/T Consultant
Carnian Pluvial Episode
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnian_pluvial_episode
The Carnian pluvial episode (CPE), often called the Carnian pluvial event, was an interval of major changes in global climate and the dominant plants and animals, or biota, of Earth that occurred during the Carnian stage of the late Triassic period. It occurred over several million years (approximately 234-232 million years ago, across the boundary between the Julian and Tuvalian substages of the Carnian. It led to the evolution and diversification of many important groups of life, including the first dinosaurs, lepidosaurs (ancestors of modern-day snakes and lizards), and calcium-containing microfossils, as well as a wider array of conifers and stony corals. The CPE also led to the extinction of many aquatic invertebrate species, especially among the ammonoids, conodonts, bryozoa, and crinoids.
The CPE is observed in Carnian strata worldwide, affecting sediments from both terrestrial and marine environments. On land, the general climate of the supercontinent Pangea shifted from primarily arid conditions to a more humid and hot climate, with substantial rainfall and relatively few dry intervals. In the oceans, there was less deposition of carbonate minerals, possibly due to the extinction of many carbonate-forming organisms, but also possibly due to a rise in the carbonate compensation depth, below which most carbonate shells dissolve and leave few carbonate particles on the ocean floor to form sediments.
Climate change during the Carnian pluvial event is reflected in chemical changes in Carnian strata across the CPE, which suggest that global warming was prevalent at the time. This climate change was probably linked to the eruption of extensive flood basalts as the Wrangellia Terrane was accreted onto the northwestern end of the North American Plate.
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