Earth's Methane Burp Cleared Way for Dinos

I came across this article just a little while ago, and thought my fellow ATS'ers might be intersted.

The mass extinction that opened the door for the rise of the dinosaurs about 201 million years ago may have been caused by a spike in carbon pumped into the atmosphere — most likely by methane released from the seafloor, a new study indicates.

This spike appears to have accelerated the climate change already under way, ultimately leading to the end-Triassic extinction, the researchers say.

Scientists already suspected that rapid warming and changes to ocean chemistry at the time killed off the dinosaurs' competitors, allowing their era to begin. And they knew that, at the time, eruptions of lava through fissures in the Earth's crust pumped carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Source

The official reasons for mass extinctions in history has always been a hotly debated subject, but it looks as though some evidence has shed new light on what may have happened.

According to the article, testing for carbon isotopes on chemical fossils revealed the presence of carbon 12, which indicates an abundance of methane during a 20,000 to 40,000 year period. During this period, large amounts of carbon dioxide were released from volcanic activity, creating a greenhouse effect, thus warming the oceans to a point where trapped methane could escape, making it's way to the atmosphere, dramatically increasing the greenhouse effect leading to the demise of the Triassic era.

Very interesting article, and based on the facts given, does seem quite plausible.

And what article is complete without at least a little tiny bit 'o' fearmongrin'.

Since humans are now pumping a great deal of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, it is conceivable history could repeat itself, Ruhl said, if global warming prompts the release of methane currently stored in the seafloor.

On the other hand, he does kinda have a point.

Volcanoes my hairy butt. Everyone knows the dinosaurs went extinct because they pumped carbon in the air from their factories and drove around in petrol guzzling cars.

The final nail in the coffin for them was their introduction of a Jurassic Carbon Tax. It all went downhill from there.....

Originally posted by Kryties
Volcanoes my hairy butt. Everyone knows the dinosaurs went extinct because they pumped carbon in the air from their factories and drove around in petrol guzzling cars.

The final nail in the coffin for them was their introduction of a Jurassic Carbon Tax. It all went downhill from there.....

Mate... it didnt kill the dinos, it OPENED the way for them to exist. It killed whatever lived BEFORE dinos.

This marked the END of the triassic-jurassic... actually its known by the "triassic-juriassic extinction event"... it was the NEXT one (about 65 million years ago) that killed the dinos and opened the way for mammals (the cretaceous one)

I don't know if you have heard this before, but it makes absolute sense in my head.

The dinosaurs were killed by an reletively rapid increase in what we currently call 'gravity'

I know you wont trust me, but it is possible to theoretically and logically see how gravity is more of an electromagnetic phenomenon and EVERYTHING in the universe is driven by electricity(aka energy) and the laws of electromagnetism and electric charge can apply to all the creation, destruction, and patterns within.

Earth is made of mostly Iron. The atmosphere is quite saturated with insulators, mainly H20. The ionosphere is, well Ionized, electrically, along with medium we travel through, aka solar wind.

This makes Earth a capacitor. The earth stores energy, aka electricity.
I say there was much chaos in earths past and electricity played THE major role.
At one time there was enough energy coming from the sun to actually 'charge' the earth, increasing the energy being stored, thus increasing the 'heat' thus increasing the effect of gravity, which I belive to be a phenomenon of electromagnetism.

Please remember that each atom is made of energy, and each atom is a magnet, in itself.

But, you don't have to take my word for it


I don't usually post my 'uneducated' observations and postulations. I just really love dinosaurs and I get tired of 'science' continuing on the myth of uniformitarinism.

To more address your post directly, OP.

I find it amazingly presumptuous of even current 'advanced' sciences to establish theories about how an entire planets ecosystem can function 'millions' of years ago.

Radioactive decay rates are not constant. They can be altered by emissions from the core of the sun.
That enough should throw current scientific theory on its head.

Also, I believe it to be entirely non-empirical to assume what has been left behind, far in the past can be tested and measured today, using the understanding we have today.

But then again, no college degree, so.. sometimes I feel like I just textually vomit all over the forums here.

reply to post by ZombieJesus


there are several competeing theories about the cause of the the permian triassic event, 1) a massive release of methane into the atmosphere,2) a massive release of CO2 into the atmosphere, 3) a massive release of hydrogen sulfide, and 4)massive vulcanism( the large igneous province eruption that caused the siberian traps),5)an extreme acidification of the oceans by a massive release of sulfur and CO2 into the atmosphere(it caused there to be a layer of sulfuric/carbonic acid several feet deep on the oceans surface.
There is good evidence for all of the above theories, but only one mechanism can tie all them together, a massive deep ocean impact of an extra terrestrial body.
The planet had only one continent at the time, pangea, and it straddled the equator almost from pole to pole. This caused there to almost no east-west mixing of the ocean opposite of the continental mass.
As a result of this there was a warm calm ocean, that for tens of millions of years allowed for the unrestrained growth of planktons and other microscopic organisms in the warm upper layers of water. As they died and fell to the seafloor great layers of limestones and methane deposits formed(in the form of methane hydrates).

Then a large comet or asteroid come along and smacks into the ocean basin, this causes a couple of things, first billions of tons of limestone are vaporized and huge amounts of CO2 are released as are the methane deposits, that are stirred from the the whole ocean basiny by the ensuing shock wave.
Another thing that happens is that, unlike a continental impact where most of the energy is reflected back into space by the thick rocks of a continent, the energy is absorbed by the mantle and is transmited via seismic waves around the core and refocused to erupt out on the opposite side of the planet as large igneous province forming mantle plume. This is what likely caused the siberian traps eruption that added even more CO2 and sulfur and hydrogen sulfide to the atmosphere.
A good argument for such an event is supported by a USGS paper on Anti-podal hotspots.

anti podal hotspot formation.

Since no ocean crust is more than 125 million years old there will be no tell tale crater for such an event, but it is the only theory which can account for all of the varios eveidence in the permian triassic extinction, where 90% of all ocean life went extinct

reply to post by punkinworks10


Thanks for the informative reply

I believe what Mr. Micha Ruhl is implying with his theory though, is a combination of the competing theories you outlined.

there are several competeing theories about the cause of the the permian triassic event, 1) a massive release of methane into the atmosphere,2) a massive release of CO2 into the atmosphere, 3) a massive release of hydrogen sulfide, and 4)massive vulcanism( the large igneous province eruption that caused the siberian traps),5)an extreme acidification of the oceans by a massive release of sulfur and CO2 into the atmosphere(it caused there to be a layer of sulfuric/carbonic acid several feet deep on the oceans surface.

The gist I got from the article is:

4)massive vulcanism( the large igneous province eruption that caused the siberian traps)

caused a...

2) a massive release of CO2 into the atmosphere

in turn creating a greenhouse effect, warming the oceans, causing...

1) a massive release of methane into the atmosphere

Which led to a dramatic increase of the greenhouse effect for the next 20,000 to 40,000 years, creating a mass extinction of permian creatures paving the way for dinosaurs.

From the article in the OP:

Under the right conditions, bacteria on the ocean floor tuck it away, but warming caused by the emission of carbon dioxide could have prompted the release of their methane. In the atmosphere, the methane would have caused more warming, and hence the release of more methane, creating a feedback, he said.

Source

ETA: Thanks to the link on the paper regarding antipodal hotspots, very interesting