Did the Alborz Large Igneous Province cause rifting, mid-Ordovician cooling, and biogeographic changes in peri-Gondwana terranes?

Abstract A major and geologically sudden change occurred in the Darriwilian (mid-Ordovician) of three peri-Gondwana areas (Sibumasu, Lhasa terranes, and Himalaya), from a warm-water Australian–North Chinese cephalopod-conodont fauna to a cool-water, South Chinese fauna. This sudden shift is contemporaneous with the P2 eruptive phase in the mantle-plume–generated Alborz Large Igneous Province of Iran and possibly the rifting of South China from Gondwana. This faunal change was initiated by the formation of an incipient ocean and the hypothetical influx of a cool-water current along the peri-Gondwana margin.