World's Biggest Extinction Event: Massive Volcanic Eruption, Burning Coal and Accelerated Greenhouse Gas Choked out Life

World's Biggest Extinction Event: Massive Volcanic Eruption, Burning Coal and Accelerated Greenhouse Gas Choked out Life

ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2011.)

 

Did you know that almost all sea life was wiped out about 250,000,000 million years ago? Studies show that ninety-five percent of the aquatic life was wiped away, and thats is not all, seventy percent of animals, plants and other living things on land were also wiped away! These studies come from a team of people in the University of Calgary. They say that they might have found evidence that shows volcanic eruptions that destroyed everything in its path, and produced ash clouds that majorly impacted the earth’s waters. "This could literally be the smoking gun that explains the latest Permian extinction," says Dr. Steve Grasby, adjunct professor in the University of Calgary's Department of Geoscience and research scientist at Natural Resources Canada. About 250 million year ago, the Carboniferous period ended and the Permian period began. At this time the earth was grouped together called Pangaea. The climate got drier, and the first reptiles started living on land and in the water. This was a very environmentally important time in our history. At the end of the Permian period, a huge volcanic explosion happened, and the scientists from the University of Calgary think they know why. They have found layers of coal and ash in rocks, found at Canada’s high arctic. There are many theories why the volcanic explosion happened, so have to do with a significant amount of greenhouse gases and global warming. "Our research is the first to show direct evidence that massive volcanic eruptions -- the largest the world has ever witnessed -caused massive coal combustion thus supporting models for significant generation of greenhouse gases at this time," says Grasby. Scientists say that the volcanoes which produced the explosion are in Siberia, the ash plumes from the explosion have journeyed from northern Russia, to Canada’s arctic. "Our discovery provides the first direct confirmation for coal ash during this extinction as it may not have been recognized before." says Grasby. The clouds of moving ash could have caused a whole lot of trouble our earth. It could have heated up the waters and suffocated the animals because of the decreasing oxygen level.

Wow, I had no idea that there was such a period, where the earth was almost lifeless. It was also interesting to see how much ash can travel through the air. For example the most recent volcano eruption was in Iceland. There was footage of the volcano bursting through extremely thick ice layers. When the ash went in the air, planes were canceled because there so much ash in the air, my mom’s flight was canceled because there was too much ash in the air in Serbia. That is a long ways away from Iceland. That just goes to show us how powerful a volcanic eruption can be. This eruption must to have been tiny compared to one 250 million years ago. It is amazing how dangerous a volcanic eruption are, especially one that almost killed all the life on earth. I am extremely interested to find out more about volcanoes, and I have my fingers crossed that another huge volcano won’t destroy the living population on earth. But as they say, things happen for a reason. 

Sites Used:

ScienceDaily. "World's Biggest Extinction Event: Massive Volcanic Eruption, Burning Coal and Accelerated Greenhouse Gas Choked out Life." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. .

"YouTube - Live Footage Iceland Volcano 2010 April." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. .