TRACE ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS OF PRODUCTIVITY AND OXYGENATION CONDITIONS WITHIN THE WESTERN CANADA SEDIMENTARY BASIN FOLLOWING THE PERMIAN-TRIASSIC EXTINCTION

Approximately 251 million years ago, towards the end of the Permian, Earth experienced a mass extinction event that resulted in the extinction of almost 90% of species on the planet. Recovery from the extinction event did not happen at the same time everywhere; instead, recovery from the extinction was strongly related to environmental conditions. To understand how organisms rebounded following such a devastating crisis, it is necessary to examine the reestablishment of primary productivity and its relationship to environmental conditions, specifically oxygenation levels, during this period as a whole. Samples previously collected and powdered from the Montney Formation from 2 drill cores from the Pedigree-Ring/ Border-Kahntah River area of northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Alberta (16-33-84/18W6M and B-24-H/94-H-16) underwent trace elemental analysis to determine oxygenation and productivity recovery rates within the region. Trace elemental analysis of core B-24-H/94-H-16 reveals low productivity levels and anoxic conditions that shift up section to euxinic conditions. Analysis of core 16-33-84/18W6M reveals anoxia and possible euxinic conditions that correlate with enhanced productivity, which likely drove the anoxic conditions found in the core. Anoxic to euxinic conditions found within the Pedigree-Ring/ Border-Kahntah River area therefore are driven by a combination of upwelling of nutrient -rich deep waters (16-33-84/18W6M) and the impingement of deep, anoxic water masses along the western margin of Pangea (B-24-H/94-H-16). Results derived from this study suggest that post-extinction recovery rates are strongly influenced by environmental conditions that are driven by processes acting at both the regional and global scale, and careful, multiproxy analysis is necessary to determine which processes are active in any given area.