The end-Permian mass extinction might have begun when eruptions started.
Life 17 November 2021.
By CAMERON Duke.
An artist is illustrating volcanic eruptions.
The science photo library is named after Ron Miller.
The end-Permian mass extinction is the most devastating extinction event in our planet's history. There is evidence that global warming was preceded by a volcanic winter, which would have been bad for the environment.
During the end-Permian extinction, life on Earth came dangerously close to collapsing. Roughly 85% of the species on the planet vanished in the blink of an eye. This is thought to have begun when lava oozing across modern-day Siberia in a series of eruptions pumped enough carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere to raise global temperatures and starve the oceans of oxygen.
The extinction may not have been caused by the so-called Siberia Traps, but by other eruptions.
Michael Rampino, one of the authors of the study, says that there are unusual levels of copper and mercury embedded in ash layers in southern China. He says that the ash layers are rich in sulphur, which indicates the style of volcanic eruption.
The researchers think that the beginning of a volcanic winter may have been preceded by the warming caused by the eruptions, because they were catastrophic enough to cause an ash cloud.
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The material from the eruptions would have been carried around the globe by the winds of the stratosphere.
The geology shows that the ash clouds correlate with local extinctions of land-based life, suggesting that the large eruptions were enough to have a severe impact on the biosphere.
The end-Permian extinction might have been caused by the one-two punch of geologic activity. A rapid period of cooling followed by a long period of warming would have been the result of Organisms.
Science Advances has a journal reference.
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