India-Asia collision as a driver of atmospheric CO2 in the Cenozoic

Deep Earth degassing is a critical forcing factor for atmospheric CO 2 variations and palaeoclimate changes in Earth’s history. For the Cenozoic, the key driving mechanism of atmospheric CO 2 variations remains controversial. Here we analyse three stages of collision-related magmatism in Tibet, which correspond temporally with the three major stages of atmospheric CO 2 variations in the Cenozoic and explore the possibility of a causal link between these phenomena. To this end we present geochemical data for the three stages of magmatic rocks in Tibet, which we use to inform a model calculating the continental collision-induced CO 2 emission flux associated with the evolving Neo-Tethyan to continental subduction over the Cenozoic. The correlation between our modelled CO 2 emission rates and the global atmospheric CO 2 curve is consistent with the hypothesis that the India-Asia collision was the primary driver of changes in atmospheric CO 2 over the Cenozoic. “Earth degassing is a critical carbon source, but its contribution to Cenozoic atmospheric CO 2 variations is not well known. Here, the authors analyse CO 2 fluxes on the Tibetan Plateau and suggest that the India-Asia collision was the primary driver of changes in atmospheric CO 2 over the past 65 Ma.”