Volcanic Warming Eyed in 'Great Dying'

[seemslikeadream]

Posted on Thu, Jan. 20, 2005

RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - An ancient version of global warming may have been to blame for the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history.

In an event known as the "Great Dying," some 250 million years ago, 90 percent of all marine life and nearly three-quarters of land-based plants and animals went extinct.

Scientists have long debated the cause of this calamity - which occurred before the era of dinosaurs - with possibilities including such disasters as meteor impacts.

Researchers led by Peter Ward of the University of Washington now think the answer is global warming caused by volcanic activity. Their findings are reported in Thursday's online edition of the journal Science.

They studied the Karoo Basin of South Africa, using chemical, biological and other evidence to relate layers of sediment there to similar layers in China that previous research has tied to the marine extinction at the same period.
more
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/10692102.htm

[Mr_Spock]

1. Yeah, whatever, we all know life is only 5,000 years old.

That's when Gawd put us here to kill each other :D

[VegasWolf]

2. I thought that we were put here to worship apples and not eat them. n/t

[General Paranoia]

3. Nice try

Checkout:
http://www1.tpgi.com.au/users/tps-seti/crater.html
Or lots of others.

/Rant mode on

For every mass extinction there seems to be one or more huge craters in the temporal vicinity. Some time ago somebody published a paper suggesting that meteor impacts could cause huge volcanic eruptions (presumably both locally and on the other side of the earth from the impact). One would have thought it was obvious from the currently accepted theory about the formation of the moon. It appears to have been a rather BIG impact (although they don't seem to be hunting for the "crater"). Spashing lunar size waves of magma into lunar orbit would seem to qualify as substantial "volcanic activity".

I suspect the problem is people practicing Paleontology without a "license". First it was Astrophysicists, later DNA Biologists and who knows who's next.

I find it interesting that Paleontologists keep proposing extinction mechanisms that operate over tens of millions of years. Perhaps they should read a little Darwin. Life responds to environmental pressure quite well if it is given time to do so.

/Rant mode off

:wtf:

[DrWeird]

4. Looks like the peer reviewers at Science would disagree

with that assessment.

[General Paranoia]

5. As they have before each new crater is found.

I would expect some awareness of a trend here after ROCK (as it were) sold proof at Chicxulub. Because of the energies involved and the immediate effects the impact theory would seem to be preeminent. Thus the other theories would become extraordinary claims and need extraordinary evidence. It is hard to do much evolving during and impact but the volcano theories don't seems to spend much time explaining how life would not evolve with the long periods given for the eruptions.

Since impacts can explain volcanism why do we expect volcanism to be the whole cause by itself. I think the authors need to provide substantial evidence why the impacts aren't the cause. Looking at the site of the volcanism isn't enough because the primary cause is likely on the other side of the planet (at the time of impact so they must account for continental drift and impact angle).

Just my opinions - I don't have a "license" either.

:think: