At sunrise on a summer day in Australia, about an hour's drive from Sydney, we clambered northward along the base of a cliff on a mission. We were searching for rocks that we hoped would contain clues to the darkest chapter in our planet's history.
From our vantage point on the outcrop, we could see our first hint of ancient devastation: the absence of coal beds in the towering sandstone cliffs above us. During our dawn scramble across the rocks, we had spotted numerous coal beds sandwiched between the sandstones and mudstones in the lower rock levels. These coals date to the late Permian . They represent the compacted remains of the swamp forests that existed across a vast belt of the southern supercontinent Gondwana.
All organisms must bend to the forces of nature. Like our ancestors that survived the end-Permian event, we sought a reprieve from the punishing temperatures during our fieldwork. Fortunately, we had to hide for just a few hours before we could emerge. But what if the insufferable heat had lasted months— or millennia?
Insights came from analyses of the other two samples. The age estimates revealed that the ecosystem collapse coincided with the first rumblings of tremendous volcanic eruptions in a “large igneous province” known as the Siberian Traps, in what is now Russia. The term “volcanic” seems inadequate in this context; the volume of magma in the Siberian Traps was a whopping several million cubic kilometers. Thus, the Siberian Traps province is to a volcano as a tsunami is to a ripple in your bathtub.
From the precious little previously published data we found on freshwater systems during other mass extinctions, the pattern held up. So far, so good. But the best sign that we were onto something significant came when we placed the end-Permian event, along with the others, on a spectrum from least to most severe. The extinctions appeared to show a “dose- response relationship.” This term is often used to describe the reaction of an organism to an external stimulus, such as a drug or a virus.
Wildfires can exacerbate this problem. In a warming world, droughts intensify, and outbreaks of fire become more common even in moisture-rich environments, such as the peat forests of Indonesia and the Pantanal wetlands of South America. Wildfires not only increase nutrient levels in water by exposing the soil and enhancing nutrient runoff into the streams, but they also throw immense quantities of soot and micronutrients into the atmosphere, which then land in oceans and waterways.
Great article, thank you for publishing this new research. I've loved learning about the Permian period ever since I saw a lecture given by Dr. Douglas H. Erwin and read Dr. Peter D. Ward's book on his work with Permian fossils in the Karoo Basin in South Africa.
perez_hall Warning...
Humans need to focus cycles, the real phenomena of nature and our relationship with it. Just like blood moons reappearing centuries later, so to does everything else!
And who was to blame for it then?
Lol
Hear, hear…
Summation seems to point that we are currently in an extinction event.
Humans will NOT let the bacteria and algae win this time! This time we will win... we will devastate those rivers and lakes before the stupid bacteria & algae can say 'mass extinction' THAT is a promise!
Humans are too stupid to forestall their own impending extinction. Right before the dinosaur rat-roaches take over, some bonehead's last words will be blaming it all on someone else.
Scientific American is no longer a legitimate source for science. It went woke, never to be trusted again.
Gates: “…too much carbon is the result of too many people and we manage that with vaccines.”
So who rid the bacteria and algae in waters for us humans to exist after previous mass extinction. And why can’t it be redone now?
Bacteria has been here billions of years and will win the war.
Lol
It's Time!!!🤣
....and what caused the toxic algae back then?
We're lazy and we're one of the few species that pray upon itself so who we gonna blame on the next mass extinction?
You people have clearly never been to Florida.
You drama queens at hysterical scientific America should start worrying when the mass scale volcanic eruptions start again releasing methane, co2 in percentages unseen since this reads like 7th grade greta thunberg book report yikes
They own the world before us
True ... they called it the 'Flood' (Genesis).
Poor farming practices are often contributing factors.
Now they're in politics.
Not man-made climate change... so why the warning?
If you look at Hoyt Lake in Buffalo, you will see one of the worst Blue Algae blooms their is..
Bring it.
they had social media back in the permian too?
Glad, won’t live to work to pay banks and taxes