US Scientists Associated Mass Permian Extinction with Volcanic Winter million years ago, at the end of the Permian period. Analysis of ancient sediments in southern China revealed that violent volcanic eruptions caused a volcanic winter, which led to a sharp global cooling. The study is published in Science Advances.
The massive Permian extinction has become the largest environmental disaster on Earth over the past 500 million years. As a result, 80-90 percent of land and marine animal species have disappeared. Geological evidence points to several possible causes, including trap magmatism in Siberia, when colossal amounts of lava were poured onto the surface, leading to the emergence of a vast region of volcanic rocks.
Scientists have traditionally associated trap magmatism with significant climate change. Large amounts of carbon dioxide have entered the atmosphere, contributing to global warming and a decrease in the level of dissolved oxygen in seawater. Gigantic dead zones, deprived of oxygen and fatal to many marine organisms, began to appear.
In a new study, scientists analyzed rocks in mineral deposits, including copper and mercury, whose age coincides with the end of the Permian period. These rocks are characterized by the presence of anomalies in the chemical composition: an increased content of the light isotope Cu; inclusions enriched in copper and sulphides; as well as jumps in the concentration of mercury. This is probably due to volcanic sulfur emissions.
Atmospheric aerosols of sulfuric acid could cause a sharp global cooling of several degrees, which was then replaced by global warming. According to scientists, this confirms the fact that trap magmatism was not the only trigger for the mass extinction.