Reconciling early Deccan Traps CO ₂ outgassing and pre-KPB global climate

Significance Carbon outgassing from Large Igneous Provinces has been invoked as a mechanism to drive major climate shifts throughout Earth’s history. However, the lack of direct constraints on evolving carbon release from magmas in these provinces represents a major challenge for understanding the relationship between magmatism and environmental change. This paper presents constraints on CO 2 contents of early Deccan Traps lavas based on studies of olivine-hosted melt inclusions. We use these data to evaluate links between early Deccan carbon outgassing and an episode of pronounced warming just prior to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. By accounting for evolving CO 2 budgets and degassing from intrusive magmas, this work quantitatively relates magma emplacement, outgassing, and observed changes in paleoclimate.