Breakthrough: Siberian Volcanoes Triggered Earth’s Great Permian Mass Extinction

Known as the “Great Dying,” hardly any species survived the Great Permian Mass Extinction event. And now, scientists have made a scientific breakthrough about what actually triggered this event.

This apocalyptic and ancient incident wiped out more than 95 percent of marine life and 70 percent of land animals. Catastrophic environmental changes also resulted from the mass extinction and scientists now know that Siberian volcanoes set the whole thing into motion.

Scientists at New York University (NYU) have discovered new evidence to show that the Great Permian Mass Extinction was caused by massive volcanic eruptions. By analyzing rocks, researchers have discovered evidence for a global spike in the element nickel at the time of the extinction. Using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer, which measures the abundance of rare elements at their atomic level, the scientists documented anomalous peaks of nickel in regions ranging from the Arctic to India at the time of the Great Permian Extinction. They say this is most likely to have come from huge volcanic eruptions, as rocks formed from cooling lava contain some of the biggest nickel deposits on the planet.

NYU geologist Michael Rampino explained that exploding volcanoes in Siberia likely caused intense global warming, which was recorded in the oceans and on land during the extinction. The eruptions would have also released huge amounts of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, and methane leading to the extinction 252 million years ago.

Sedelia Rodriguez, an Environmental Science lecturer at Barnard College, hopes the research will help scientists determine whether another mass extinction of this kind could happen again. “We hope to learn more about how these events trigger massive extinctions that affect both land and marine animals,” said Rodriquez. “Additionally, we hope this research will contribute to determining whether an event of this magnitude is possible in the future.”

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Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 1 people
Date: October 4th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

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Mathematician Claims 6th Mass Extinction Is Coming To Earth SOON

According to MIT geophysicist Daniel Rothman, the sixth global mass extinction is right around the corner. Using his skills in mathematics, Rothman has determined that earth will be well into the sixth extinction phase by the year 2100.

Rothman began his math journey to determine our next extinction by investigating fluctuations in the carbon cycle. The carbon cycle is the path carbon traces through Earth’s land, oceans, and atmosphere that has occurred over the last 542 million years. By analyzing 31 established carbon isotopic events recognized by geochemists, Rothman identified the ebb and flow of carbon–12 and carbon–13, which are two isotopes of carbon whose abundance has varied considerably in Earth’s history.

From this information, he constructed a database to assess how much carbon mass was pumped into the world’s oceans in each historical event. In most of these episodes, the carbon volume stayed under a certain threshold. But in some of them (including four of the past five mass extinction events that exterminated multitudes of life-forms on the planet) that threshold was breached. “It became evident that there was a characteristic rate of change that the system basically didn’t like to go past,” Rothman said about his findings.

According to Rothman’s math, there are only two ways carbon levels can exceed the threshold of a catastrophe. One is where CO2 emissions slowly swell over thousands and millions of years, slowly triggering a global calamity. The other case occurs on a much shorter timescale, where an immense shift in carbon volumes moving through the carbon cycle happens in the space of say, decades or years.

Rothman warns that by the year 2100, about 310 gigatons of carbon will have been added to the oceans. This is a potential “tipping point” for an ecological disaster, according to his study. That’s also the minimum amount of carbon expected to enter earth’s oceans by 2100. When CO2 dissolves into the ocean as it did in the case of the End-Permian mass extinction, all life on Earth is at risk.

The formula predicts that by the end of the century oceans will hold enough carbon to launch a mass extermination of species in the very near future. Rothman also stated that it would take about 10,000 years for the disaster to completely play out.

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Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 369 people
Date: September 21st, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.