Terrestrial evidence for volcanogenic sulfate-driven cooling event ~30 kyr before the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction

Abstract

Alongside the Chicxulub meteorite impact, Deccan volcanism is considered a primary trigger for the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) mass extinction. Models suggest that volcanic outgassing of carbon and sulfur—potent environmental stressors—drove global temperature change, but the relative timing, duration, and magnitude of such change remains uncertain. Here, we use the organic paleothermometer MBT′_5me and the carbon-isotope composition of two K–Pg-spanning lignites from the western Unites States, to test models of volcanogenic air temperature change in the ~100 kyr before the mass extinction. Our records show long-term warming of ~3°C, probably driven by Deccan CO₂ emissions, and reveal a transient (<10 kyr) ~5°C cooling event, coinciding with the peak of the Poladpur “pulse” of Deccan eruption ~30 kyr before the K–Pg boundary. This cooling was likely caused by the aerosolization of volcanogenic sulfur. Temperatures returned to pre-event values before the mass extinction, suggesting that, from the terrestrial perspective, volcanogenic climate change was not the primary cause of K–Pg extinction.