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Enhanced wildfire at the Frasnian-Famennian boundary and its implications for O2 level and F-F mass extinction: evidence from organic petrology and Os isotope stratigraphy

Metadata Updated: September 17, 2025

In this study, organic petrology and Osmium isotope (187Os/188Os) stratigraphy, major and trace element, and programmed pyrolysis analysis were performed on five outcrop samples from western New York, USA. Seawater Os isotope composition is controlled by radiogenic input from weathering of the ancient land and nonradiogenic input from extraterrestrial and hydrothermal sources (Peucker-Ehrenbrink and Ravizza, 2000). Os is complexed by the organic matter present at the time of deposition without isotope fractionation. Seawater Os isotope composition is reconstructed by analysing the Os isotope composition of the organic-rich sedimentary rock (Turgeon et al., 2007). The short residence time of Os (10 – 50 kyrs) in seawater makes it homogenised in the ocean, thus the Os isotope record from an open marine setting is representative of the global signal (Peucker-Ehrenbrink and Ravizza, 2000; Rooney et al., 2016). Here, we report increased inertinite as evidence for enhanced wildfire events at the F-F boundary and give implications on the F-F mass extinction. O2 level is estimated to be around (24.8%) with the average inertinite abundance data. Unlike previously thought, our findings support a model with higher atmospheric oxygen level (Berner et al., 2003) during the Late Frasnian to early Famennian (Late Devonian). The atmospheric oxygen level may have reached the present level (21 %) at late Frasnian (25 Myrs earlier than previous thought). Our Osi record excludes extra-terrestrial impact or hydrothermal event as a trigger for the mass extinction. Also, we give implications on the mechanism of Re-Os enrichment and fractionation in the organic-rich sedimentary rocks.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 17, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 17, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-5ce2cdfce4b0f7ebfdfb8b41
Data Last Modified 2020-08-19T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id b58b8efd-57e5-46c8-823c-e5dda34152ca
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -79.164265, 42.459709, -78.122986, 42.652212
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 669542c1b9891a04ed8d98a5621a0b08eab0a2ce106f35ba379289cf634bc5b3
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -79.164265, 42.459709, -79.164265, 42.652212, -78.122986, 42.652212, -78.122986, 42.459709, -79.164265, 42.459709}

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