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Permian volcanic deposits are widespread throughout southwestern Gondwana and record voluminous silicic continental arc volcanism (e.g., Choiyoi Province) that may have contributed to Permian global warming and environmental degradation. Many Permian volcanic deposits of southwestern Gondwana (southern South America, southern Africa,WestAntarctica and eastern Australia), however, remain to be accurately correlated to magmatic source regions along the active paleo-Pacific margin of Gondwana, and this lack of correlation limits our understanding of the timing and distribution of voluminous volcanism. Here we present detrital zircon U-Pb and Hf isotope data for Permian volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks from the Ellsworth Mountains, Pensacola Mountains, and the Ohio Range of central Antarctica in southwestern Gondwana used to determine their volcanic source along the paleo-Pacific margin of Gondwana. Rocks in central Antarctica record Permian (ca. 268 Ma) volcanism with a mean zircon epsilon Hf-i of -0.04 +/- 4.8 (2 standard deviation). Comparison of these zircon age and Hf data with compilations for adjacent regions along the Gondwana margin suggest derivation of the Antarctic zircons from a major episode of Permian explosive arc volcanism that is broadly synchronous with, and geochemically similar to, the voluminous Choiyoi Province in South America.This correlation also relates the source of synchronous volcaniclastic deposits in the Karoo Basin, South Africa, to the same major Permian volcanic episode associated with the Choiyoi Province. In aggregate, geochemical data from Permian zircon in central Antarctica support an along-arc variation in geochemistry, with isotopically enriched high-flux magmatism associated with thicker crust and lithospheric mantle in South America, and isotopically depleted magmatism and thinner crust and lithospheric mantle in Australia. The timing of inferred Choiyoi-related explosive arc volcanism recorded in the Antarctic sector, South African sector, and South American sector is contemporaneous with a documented increase in global arc flux, an increase in atmospheric CO2, a decrease in delta C-13 of benthic marine fossils, and mass extinction events. We suggest that the Choiyoi Province and correlated arc volcanism along the Gondwana margin contributed to increased global arc flux in the Permian leading to elevated background levels of atmospheric CO2 conducive to producing an environmental crisis during mafic large igneous province emplacement, and may serve as an example of continental arc outgassing exerting a first order control on climate.