Mystery of Earth's Greatest Extinction May Be Solved

The massive natural CO2 emissions from the Siberian traps' coal fires are analogous to the man-made CO2 emissions from burning coal for power and cement production. Humans are in the process of recreating the conditions that led to the greatest mass extinction event in earth's history.

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Mystery of Earth's Greatest Extinction May Be Solved

Two hundred fifty million years ago the CO2 levels shot up in the atmosphere, the oceans turned into acid, temperatures skyrocketed and death embraced the earth, killing over 90% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species. The prime suspect has long been a series of massive volcanic eruptions in Russia known as the Siberian Traps eruptions. One of the other suspected causes was a meteorite impact, because basaltic volcanic eruptions don't emit enough CO2 to cause a global catastrophe. The cause of the massive spike in CO2 has been a mystery.

Now the missing clue, has been found: 250 million year old coal ash.

A recent discovery of coal ash layers at Buchanan Lake, Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut provided the first direct evidence of significant coal fires at the Latest Permian Extinction.

The Permian extinction, known as the great dying, was the largest extinction in earth's history. Source: Wikipedia Read more at www.dailykos.com

 

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