UC study helps explain global mass extinction
https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2019/04/n2081561.htmlUC study helps explain global mass extinction
Geologists say they have evidence of what caused the biggest natural catastrophe on Earth: volcanoes
Fri, April 12, 2019
Researchers say mercury buried in ancient rock provides the strongest evidence yet that volcanoes caused the biggest mass extinction in the history of the Earth.
The extinction 252 million years ago was so dramatic and widespread that scientists call it the Great Dying. The catastrophe killed off more than 95 percent of life on Earth over the course of hundreds of thousands of years.
Paleontologists with the University of Cincinnati and the China University of Geosciences said they found a spike in mercury in the geologic record at nearly a dozen sites around the world, which provides persuasive evidence that volcanic eruptions were to blame for this global cataclysm.
The study was published this month in the journal
Nature Communications.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09620-0