The DOI matches its Crossref record; 42 of the 42 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 20 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.
The eruptive tempo of Deccan volcanism in relation to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary
Open accessAbstract
Two timelines for extinction: The Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction that wiped out the nonavian dinosaurs 66 million years ago was correlated with two extreme events: The Chicxulub impact occurred at roughly the same time that massive amounts of lava were erupting from the Deccan Traps (see the Perspective by Burgess). Sprain et al. used argon-argon dating of the volcanic ash from the Deccan Traps to argue that a steady eruption of the flood basalts mostly occurred after the Chicxulub impact. Schoene et al. used uranium-lead dating of zircons from ash beds and concluded that four large magmatic pulses occurred during the flood basalt eruption, the first of which preceded the Chicxulub impact. Whatever the correct ordering of events, better constraints on the timing and rates of the eruption will help elucidate how volcanic gas influenced climate. Science , this issue p. 866 , p. 862 ; see also p. 815
Overview
CoChat Summary
Written by AI from the paper’s full text.
TL;DR
High-precision 40Ar/39Ar ages from the Deccan Traps indicate quasi-continuous eruption for 991,000 years, with >90% of volume erupted in <1 million years and ~75% emplaced post-KPB, contradicting three discrete large pulses. The KPB is placed near the Lonavala-Wai transition, and Late Cretaceous climate change coincides with the smallest-volume Deccan phases, challenging a simple volume-driven gas-release link.
Key findings
- The Deccan Traps lavas erupted quasi-continuously for 991,000 years, from ~66.413 Ma to ~65.422 Ma, representing ~560,000 km³ and ~93% of the total estimated Deccan volume.
- The paper found no evidence for three discrete large pulses; >90% of Deccan volume erupted in <1 million years, with ~75% emplaced post-KPB. Mean extrusion rates were 0.4 ± 0.1 km³/year before the KPB (124,000 km³) and 0.6 ± 0.2 km³/year after the KPB (435,000 km³).
- The KPB is placed within or near the top of the Lonavala or basal Wai Subgroup. The Bushe-Poladpur transition at Ambenali Ghat has an interpolated age of 66.03 ± 0.04 Ma, indistinguishable from the KPB age of 66.052 ± 0.008 Ma, with the transition occurring between 60,000 years before and 20,000 years after the KPB.
- Late Cretaceous climate changes coincide with eruption of the smallest-volume Deccan phases, suggesting either that release of climate-modifying gases is not directly related to eruptive volume or that Deccan volcanism was not the source of Late Cretaceous climate change.
Methods
- The authors measured 19 new high-precision 40Ar/39Ar plagioclase ages from the Western Ghats, sampling each Deccan subgroup and all but two formations, with focused sampling near the Lonavala-Wai Subgroup transition.
- Samples were analyzed by 11- to 21-step heating experiments on multigrain plagioclase aliquots, with three to eight aliquots per sample and dense standard bracketing during irradiation.
- New ages were combined with previously published high-precision dates, and a Bayesian age model (“Bacon”) was applied to the Ambenali Ghat section to bracket the Bushe-Poladpur contact; volume estimates were based on previously published estimates weighted by areal extent.
Limitations
- Stated: the authors cannot exclude the possibility that the KPB occurs within the Bushe or lower half of the Poladpur Formation, though their model’s most probable placement is ~25 m below the Bushe-Poladpur contact.
- Stated: volume estimates have uncertainties, formation contacts may be diachronous between sections, and the Bayesian age model is most secure when applied to a continuous stratigraphic section, so it was applied only to the Ambenali Ghat section.
- Stated: better estimates of the amount and species of gas released, and improved understanding of relationships among lava extrusion, volatile release, and climatic effects of large igneous provinces, are needed. Evident from the text: the KPB in the Deccan is not directly dated but placed by interpolation using an external 40Ar/39Ar age from Montana and a contact bracketed by only one date from each formation.
Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
18 Own result · 14 Sources not found · 5 Own interpretation · 1 Not checked yet
In the paper
“which is indistinguishable from the 66.052 ± 0.008 Ma 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age of the KPB (25).”
§ MASS EXTINCTION > T
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [25]
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
plainSingle case- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Not matched
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The results of our age model indicate that the transition from the Bushe Fm. to the Poladpur Fm. at Ambenali Ghat occurred between 60,000 years before and 20,000 years after the KPB.”
§ MASS EXTINCTION > T
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“We also found that the DT did not erupt in three discrete large pulses”
§ MASS EXTINCTION > Abstract
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“but the most probable placement according to our model is ~25 m below the contact between the two.”
§ MASS EXTINCTION > T
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper states — it cites no source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“We cannot exclude the possibility that the KPB occurs within the Bushe or the lower half of the Poladpur Fm.”
§ MASS EXTINCTION > T
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- It may state two separate claims as one. 13
- Probably not a substantial claim. 2
Create a free account to see these claims.
Create a free account to see these assumptions.
19 more claims
Create a free account to see all 38 claims and every source verdict.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“The Deccan Traps, in present-day west-central India (7), formed from a series of short (∼100-ky) intermittent eruption pulses (8), with two main phases (8, 9) at ∼67.4 Ma (toward the end of the Cretaceous) and ∼66.1 Ma (starting just before the boundary and continuing through the earliest Paleogene) erupting an estimated >106 km3 of magma over a duration of ∼710,000 y (9, 10).”
From Asteroid impact, not volcanism, caused the end-Cretaceous dinosaur extinction (2020) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
“This also fits well with a recent recalibration that suggests that much of the heightened volcanic activity occurred after the K/Pg boundary (9, 10).”
From Asteroid impact, not volcanism, caused the end-Cretaceous dinosaur extinction (2020) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
“Given that the hypothesized (25) asteroid-induced cooling likely drove the extinction, a pulse of warming (with a similar magnitude as shown in our simulations) (9) just prior to the extinction may have acted as a buffer against cooling induced by the Chicxulub impact, ameliorating the physical effects of bolide impact (41).”
From Asteroid impact, not volcanism, caused the end-Cretaceous dinosaur extinction (2020) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
“This age is significantly older than the oldest high-precision age of 66.413 ± 0.067 Ma (Sprain et al., 2019) in the Jawhar Formation of the Western Ghats lavas (Jawhar Formation) and extends the initiation of Deccan volcanism by ca.400 ka.”
From Geochronological Constraints on the Evolution and Petrogenesis of the Malwa Plateau Subprovince of the Deccan Traps (2023) · cites this paper as Sprain et al., 2019
In the citing paper
“there remains disagreement between a”
From Geochronological Constraints on the Evolution and Petrogenesis of the Malwa Plateau Subprovince of the Deccan Traps (2023) · cites this paper as Sprain et al., 2019
9 more claims about this paper
Create a free account to see every claim other papers make about this one.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.
Rated major: it would touch a result — a value a result rests on, reported and recomputed p-values on opposite sides of the significance level, two passages that conflict with no sign which is right, or a cited work retracted before this paper was published.
In the paper
§ MASS EXTINCTION > T
“The results of our age model indicate that the transition from the Bushe Fm. to the Poladpur Fm. at Ambenali Ghat occurred between 60,000 years before and 20,000 years after the KPB.”
§ MASS EXTINCTION > T
“We found an interpolated age of 66.03 ± 0.04 Ma (68% confidence) for the Bushe-Poladpur transition (Fig. 3), which is indistinguishable from the 66.052 ± 0.008 Ma 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age of the KPB (25).”
Citations
Cites
Flexible paleoclimate age-depth models using an autoregressive gamma process
Blaauw, M., & Christen, J. A. (2011) · Bayesian Analysis · doi:10.1214/ba/1339616472 · Cited by 4,666
Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction
Alvarez, L. W., Alvarez, W., Asaro, F., & Michel, H. V. (1980) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.208.4448.1095 · Cited by 3,198
On the ages of flood basalt events
Courtillot, V. E., & Renne, P. R. (2003) · Comptes Rendus. Géoscience · doi:10.1016/s1631-0713(03)00006-3 · Cited by 727
Self-citationRenne, P. R., Balco, G., Ludwig, K. R., Mundil, R., & Min, K. (2011) · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta · doi:10.1016/j.gca.2011.06.021 · Cited by 712
Self-citationTime Scales of Critical Events Around the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary
Renne, P. R., Deino, A. L., Hilgen, F. J., Kuiper, K. F., Mark, D. F., Mitchell, W. S., Morgan, L. E., Mundil, R., & Smit, J. (2013) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1230492 · Cited by 545
Self-citationLinking mantle plumes, large igneous provinces and environmental catastrophes
Sobolev, S. V., Sobolev, A. V., Kuzmin, D. V., Krivolutskaya, N. A., Petrunin, A. G., Arndt, N. T., Radko, V. A., & Vasiliev, Y. R. (2011) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature10385 · Cited by 537
U-Pb geochronology of the Deccan Traps and relation to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction
Schoene, B., Samperton, K. M., Eddy, M. P., Keller, G., Adatte, T., Bowring, S. A., Khadri, S. F. R., & Gertsch, B. (2015) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aaa0118 · Cited by 443
Deccan flood basalts and the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary
Courtillot, V., Féraud, G., Maluski, H., Vandamme, D., Moreau, M. G., & Besse, J. (1988) · Nature · doi:10.1038/333843a0 · Cited by 443
State shift in Deccan volcanism at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, possibly induced by impact
Renne, P. R., Sprain, C. J., Richards, M. A., Self, S., Vanderkluysen, L., & Pande, K. (2015) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aac7549 · Cited by 431
Self-citationStratigraphy, composition and form of the Deccan Basalts, Western Ghats, India
Beane, J. E., Turner, C. A., Hooper, P. R., Subbarao, K. V., & Walsh, J. N. (1986) · Bulletin of Volcanology · doi:10.1007/bf01073513 · Cited by 384
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- J. Smit, Meteorite impact, extinctions and the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Geol. Mijnb. 69, 187–204 (1990).
Cited by
Mercury as a proxy for volcanic emissions in the geologic record
Grasby, S. E., Them, T. R., Chen, Z., Yin, R., & Ardakani, O. H. (2019) · Earth-Science Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.102880 · Cited by 453
On impact and volcanism across the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary
Hull, P. M., Bornemann, A., Penman, D. E., Henehan, M. J., Norris, R. D., Wilson, P. A., Blum, P., Alegret, L., Batenburg, S. J., Bown, P. R., et al. (2020) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aay5055 · Cited by 279
Mantle plumes and their role in Earth processes
Koppers, A. A. P., Becker, T. W., Jackson, M. G., Konrad, K., Müller, R. D., Romanowicz, B. A., Steinberger, B., & Whittaker, J. M. (2021) · Nature Reviews Earth & Environment · doi:10.1038/s43017-021-00168-6 · Cited by 284
Asteroid impact, not volcanism, caused the end-Cretaceous dinosaur extinction
Chiarenza, A. A., Farnsworth, A., Mannion, P. D., Lunt, D. J., Valdes, P. J., Morgan, J. V., & Allison, P. A. (2020) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2006087117 · Cited by 228
Exceptional continental record of biotic recovery after the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction
Lyson, T. R., Miller, I. M., Bercovici, A. D., Weissenburger, K., Fuentes, A. J., Clyde, W. C., Hagadorn, J. W., Butrim, M. J., Johnson, K. R., Fleming, R. F., et al. (2019) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aay2268 · Cited by 192
Metadata
- Authors
- Sprain, C. J., Renne, P. R., Vanderkluysen, L., Pande, K., Self, S., & Mittal, T.
- Affiliations
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- Berkeley Geochronology Center (US)
- Drexel University (US)
- Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IN)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Corresponding author
- Sprain, Courtney J.
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2019-02-22
- Volume
- 363
- Issue
- 6429
- Pages
- 866-870
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2917274531
- Cited by
- 395
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 33 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 48 · 2023: 42 · 2022: 61 · 2021: 68 · 2020: 69 · 2019: 31
- FWCI
- 34.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DSpace (IIT Bombay) (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (EAR-1615003, EAR-1615021, EAR-1615203)
- Heising-Simons Foundation
- Larsen Funds, Univ. of California-Berkeley
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geochemistry and Petrology › Geological and Geochemical Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geology › Geological and Geophysical Studies
- Keywords
- Deccan Traps, Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, large igneous provinces, magma plumbing system, mass extinction
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-11-12, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).
A second model labelled each claim on 2026-11-12 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The eruptive tempo of Deccan volcanism in relation to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1126/science.aav1446
- The paper
- Sprain, C. J., Renne, P. R., Vanderkluysen, L., Pande, K., Self, S., & Mittal, T. (2019). The eruptive tempo of Deccan volcanism in relation to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav1446
