Found the cause of the massive Permian extinction.
The massive Permian or Great Extinction happened about 252 million years ago. It became the largest in the history of the Earth. At that time, 4 percent of marine inhabitants and less than a third of land animals remained alive. For the rest, the world is ending.
Scientists have long guessed that volcanoes killed prehistoric animals. Now these suspicions have been confirmed. Geophysicists from China University of Geosciences and Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University have found compelling evidence of a murderous riot. And they published them in the journal Nature Communications.
The authors of the study pointed to the increased content of mercury in layers that are just 252 million years old. They assure that it was released by volcanic eruptions. Mercury got into the atmosphere, then into the world's oceans, and finally into bottom sediments.
According to scientists, massive volcanic activity was concentrated on the territory of modern Siberia, partly in India, where the entire surface became a real hell. Volcanoes and cracks in the earth's crust erupted here, flooding the surroundings with lava. This disgrace lasted hundreds of thousands of years, causing, as they say now, irreparable harm to the environment.
Together with mercury and poisonous gases, more than 3 million cubic kilometers of ash rose into the atmosphere. Some earthlings were simply poisoned, others died of hunger, others died as a result of a temperature change of about 10 degrees.
The pestilence lasted for about 60 thousand years. It ended especially badly for the archosaurs, the predecessors of the dinosaurs. They disappeared, "taking" with them almost all the flora of that time.
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BAD FORECAST
And the next end of the world will be volcanoes
Expert opinion: there is nothing more dangerous than volcanoes in the near future. The likelihood that it is they who, having begun to erupt en masse, will erase mankind from the face of the Earth already in the current XXI century reaches 10 percent.
Scientists remind that there have been periods of global eruptions in the history of our planet. With all the terrible consequences for the environment and its inhabitants. Fortunately, someone survived. And life on Earth, albeit in a different form, but continued.
Global eruptions took place 10, 22, 30, 40, 49 and 60 million years ago. That is, approximately every 10 million years. And between them it was restless: volcanic activity increased strongly 4, 15, 34, 45 and 65 million years ago. The secondary period lasted 5 million years. For example, it was hit by dinosaurs that ended their era 65 million years ago. And we seem to be facing an even more powerful catastrophe - from the first row. Akin to the Permian …
VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY