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High-precision U-Pb zircon age from the Triassic of Italy: Implications for the Triassic time scale and the Carnian origin of calcareous nannoplankton and dinosaurs

¹ Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Via G. Saragat 1, 44100 Ferrara, Italy
² Dipartimento di Geologia, Paleontologia e Geofisica, Università degli Studi di Padova, Via Giotto 1, 35137 Padova, Italy
³ Institute of Geosciences and Georesources, C.N.R., Corso Garibaldi 37, 35137 Padova, Italy
⁴ Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Via G. Saragat 1, 44100 Ferrara, Italy
⁵ Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

The Triassic time scale is poorly constrained due to a paucity of high-precision radiometric ages. We present a ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U age of 230.91 ± 0.33 Ma (error includes all known sources) for zircon from an ash bed in the upper Carnian (Upper Triassic) of southern Italy that requires a major revision of the Triassic time scale. For example, the Norian stage is lengthened to more than 20 m.y. The section containing the ash bed is correlated with other Tethyan sections and, indirectly, with the Newark astronomical polarity time scale (APTS). The dating provides also a minimum age for some important climatic and biotic events that occurred during the Carnian. We note a coincidence between these events and the eruption of the large igneous province of Wrangellia, but the possible link between volcanism and climatic and biotic events requires further scrutiny.

Key Words: geochronology • geologic time scale • Late Triassic • dinosaurs • calcareous nannoplankton • large igneous provinces

Related articles in Geology:

High-precision U-Pb zircon age from the Triassic of Italy: Implications for the Triassic time scale and the Carnian origin of calcareous nannoplankton and dinosaurs

Geology 2007 35: 146. [Extract] [Full Text]  

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