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Approximately 250 million years ago, vast numbers of species disappeared from Earth. This mass-extinction event may hold clues to current global carbon cycle changes, according to Jonathan Payne, assistant professor of geological and environmental sciences. Payne, a paleobiologist who joined the Stanford faculty in 2005, studies the Permian-Triassic extinction and the following 4 million years of instability in the global carbon cycle.
In the July issue of the Geological Society of America Bulletin, Payne presented evidence that a massive, rapid release of carbon may have triggered this extinction.
Originally posted by InannamuteI found this article interesting, though it's a bit of a stretch to compare the extreme events they're talking about with the current state of the earth at this moment in time - it seems they're talking about a possible super-volcano eruption, a massive single event that radically changed the climate and chemical makeup of the air and oceans, and to compare that to the current situation is a bit more hypothesis than I'm willing to take, but all the same, it's a study worth keeping an eye on.
Originally posted by Inannamute
I found this article interesting, though it's a bit of a stretch to compare the extreme events they're talking about with the current state of the earth at this moment in time - it seems they're talking about a possible super-volcano eruption, a massive single event that radically changed the climate and chemical makeup of the air and oceans, and to compare that to the current situation is a bit more hypothesis than I'm willing to take, but all the same, it's a study worth keeping an eye on.
Most likely, like with other extinction events, it was a combination of events - maybe a meteorite impact triggers the Siberian traps eruptions which released extra CO2 which warmed the oceans leading to the methane hydrate releases ..... and a slow but steady extinction over tens of thousands of years.