Wu, Yaowen;
Tian, Hui;
Fan, Haifeng;
Pogge von Strandmann, Philip AE;
Zhao, Wei;
Li, Jie;
Sun, He;
... Peng, Ping'an; + view all
(2025)
Enhanced erosion by continental arc volcanism as a driver of the Cambrian Explosion.
Nature Communications
, 16
, Article 9204. 10.1038/s41467-025-64253-w.
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Abstract
Nutrient availability and rising oxygen levels are important for the Cambrian Explosion (~540-515 Ma), both of which can be satisfied via enhanced weathering driven by climate and tectonics. Although increased subduction and continental arc volcanism coincided with the Cambrian Explosion, their weathering-nutrient feedback role remained unclear. Here we integrate Li-Os isotopes with previously published Sr isotope to investigate connections between subduction-driven weathering dynamics and animal diversification. Our results reveal a shift from enhanced erosion of arc-related juvenile rocks (ca. 540-525 Ma) to clay-forming weathering of old crust (525-515 Ma). We propose that subduction-driven warming and uplift may have accelerated erosion of phosphorus-rich juvenile rocks, releasing nutrients that boosted marine productivity and subsequent oxygen buildup through organic burial. This process ultimately fueled early animal diversification, providing additional evidence for tectonic control of biogeochemical cycles during the Cambrian Explosion.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Enhanced erosion by continental arc volcanism as a driver of the Cambrian Explosion |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-025-64253-w |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64253-w |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10215918 |
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