Continental flood basalts do not drive later Phanerozoic extinctions

Abstract

Green et al. (1) apply new statistical methods to a long-noted temporal correlation between mass extinctions and continental large igneous province (LIP) eruptions. Having concluded that the probability of said temporal coincidence by chance alone is extremely low, like others before them, Green et al. cite this correlation as evidence for causation. They then suggest that the temporal correlation of early Phanerozoic LIPs with mass extinctions implicates a similar volcanic driver for the later Cretaceous–Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction. While we do not dispute the link between early Phanerozoic mass extinctions and LIP volcanism, we suggest that it is counterproductive to draw equivalence between all episodes of LIP volcanism in this way, when doing so ignores clear differences in the circumstances and observed effects of individual LIPs.