We
were interested in the position of Kazakhstan relative to
Eurasia at that time and the relation, if any, of these
rocks to the voluminous flood basalts of the Siberian Traps.
Eruption of the latter took place 1500 km away to the northeast
in Siberia at the very end of the Permian (250 Ma), which
may have played a role in the P-Tr boundary mass extinction.
John Lyons took on this project for his M.S. thesis and
found a paleomagnetic pole for the SIS that is concordant
with those for Siberia and Europe. This shows that Kazakhstan
was already joined with Eurasia. Moreover, very precise
argon-argon dates that we obtained for the SIS are the same
within 0.5% as those for the Traps, consistent with the
hypothesis of a genetic relationship.
