'Volcanic winter' likely contributed to ecological catastrophe 250
million years ago

Date:
November 17, 2021
Source:
New York University
Summary:
A team of scientists has identified an additional force that likely
contributed to a mass extinction event 250 million years ago. Its
analysis of minerals in southern China indicate that volcano
eruptions produced a 'volcanic winter' that drastically lowered
earth's temperatures -- a change that added to the environmental
effects resulting from other phenomena at the time.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A team of scientists has identified an additional force that likely
contributed to a mass extinction event 250 million years ago. Its analysis
of minerals in southern China indicate that volcano eruptions produced
a "volcanic winter" that drastically lowered earth's temperatures --
a change that added to the environmental effects resulting from other
phenomena at the time.


==========================================================================
The research, which appears in the journal Science Advances, examined
the end- Permian mass extinction (EPME), which was the most severe
extinction event in the past 500 million years, wiping out 80 to 90
percent of species on land and in the sea.

"As we look closer at the geologic record at the time of the great
extinction, we are finding that the end-Permian global environmental
disaster may have had multiple causes among marine and non-marine
species," says Michael Rampino, a professor in New York University's
Department of Biology and one of the authors of the paper.

For decades, scientists have investigated what could have caused this
global ecological catastrophe, with many pointing to the spread of vast
floods of lava across what is known as the Siberian Traps -- a large
region of volcanic rock in the Russian province of Siberia. These
eruptions caused environmental stresses, including severe global
warming from volcanic releases of carbon dioxide and related reduction
in oxygenation of ocean waters -- the latter causing the suffocation of
marine life.

The team for the Science Advances work, composed of more than two dozen researchers, including scientists from China's Nanjing University and
Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry as well as Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and Montclair State University,
considered other factors that may have contributed to the end of the
Permian Period, which stretched from 300 million to 250 million years ago.

Specifically, they found mineral and related deposits on land in the south China region -- notably copper and mercury -- whose age coincided with
the end- Permian mass extinction in non-marine localities. Specifically,
these deposits were marked by anomalies in their composition likely due
to sulfur-rich emissions from nearby volcanic eruptions -- they were
covered by layers of volcanic ash.

"Sulfuric acid atmospheric aerosols produced by the eruptions may have
been the cause of rapid global cooling of several degrees, prior to the
severe warming seen across the end-Permian mass-extinction interval,"
explains Rampino.

The team's findings suggested that the Siberian Traps eruptions were
not the sole cause of the end-Permian mass extinction, and that the environmental effects of the eruptions in South China, and elsewhere,
may have played a vital role in the disappearance of dozens of species.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by New_York_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Hua Zhang, Feifei Zhang, Jiu-bin Chen, Douglas H. Erwin, Drew D.

Syverson, Pei Ni, Michael Rampino, Zhe Chi, Yao-feng Cai, Lei
Xiang, Wei- qiang Li, Sheng-Ao Liu, Ru-cheng Wang, Xiang-dong Wang,
Zhuo Feng, Hou- min Li, Ting Zhang, Hong-ming Cai, Wang Zheng,
Ying Cui, Xiang-kun Zhu, Zeng-qian Hou, Fu-yuan Wu, Yi-gang Xu,
Noah Planavsky, Shu-zhong Shen.

Felsic volcanism as a factor driving the end-Permian mass
extinction.

Science Advances, 2021; 7 (47) DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abh1390 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211117161443.htm

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