Scientists discover what caused the worst mass extinction ever – Casson Living – World News, Breaking News, International News

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    <p class="p1">While the extinction of the dinosaurs often steals the spotlight in discussions of mass extinctions, there was an even more catastrophic event known as the "Great Dying" or the "End-Permian Extinction" that occurred long before. Recent studies have unveiled how this colossal event, which transpired around 250 million years ago, wiped out more than 90% of life on our planet.</p><br />
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    <p class="p1">The primary trigger for this extinction was a series of immense volcanic eruptions in what is now Siberia, Russia, known as the “Siberian flood basalts.” Astonishingly, these eruptions persisted for roughly a million years.</p><br />
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    <p class="p3">According to Michael Broadley, the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Petrographic and Geochemical Research in Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France, the uniqueness of this disaster is striking:</p><br />
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    <p>“The magnitude of this extinction event was so profound that it has led scientists to question why the Siberian Flood Basalts were significantly more lethal than other similar volcanic activities,” Broadley explained.</p><br />
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    <p>Indeed, the extinction event inflicted severe damage not only to larger animals, with around 70% of them perishing, but it also devastated 96% of marine life globally, along with countless insect species. The resulting loss of biodiversity was so severe that it took an estimated 10 million years for ecosystems to recover.</p><br />
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    <p class="p5">What caused such devastation? Geologists suggest that the volcanic eruptions were so extensive that they compromised Earth’s ozone layer at that time. This conclusion was reached through an analysis of the lithosphere—the planet's rigid outer layer, which encompasses the crust and upper mantle. Before the eruption of the Siberian Flood Basalts, the lithosphere in this region contained significant amounts of chlorine, bromine, and iodine, all elements from the halogen group. Alarmingly, inhalation of gases containing these elements is extremely toxic, often leading to fatal outcomes. However, post-eruption, these elements appeared to vanish.</p><br />
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    <p>“Our findings indicate that the vast reservoir of halogens present in the Siberian lithosphere was released into the atmosphere during the volcanic activity, effectively annihilating the ozone layer and contributing to the mass extinction,” Broadley elaborated.</p><br />
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    <p>Broadley conducted this pivotal research, also referred to as the “Permian-Triassic extinction,” in collaboration with Lawrence (Larry) Taylor, the co-author and former director of the Planetary Geosciences Institute at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Taylor, who had an impressive 46-year career in science, sadly passed away in September 2017 at the age of 79.</p><br />
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