A HUGE volcanic eruption in Siberia ejected massive quantities of carbon dioxide, killing off 96% of the world’s creatures – and it may be a timely lesson for manmade climate change, scientists warn.
Study leader Dr Hana Jurikova, of the University of St Andrews, said: “The environmental deterioration took several thousands of years to unfold. The current, unprecedented emissions rate has already started to take a toll on the marine ecosystems.”
When CO2 dissolves the oceans become more acidic while the level of oxygen is reduced.
Since the industrial revolution they have absorbed more than one- quarter of that released from the burning of fossil fuels.
Studies have shown that ocean acidification could have dramatic consequences for marine life and communities whose livelihoods depend on our ocean’s resources.
The cause of “The Great Dying” – the biggest mass extinction in history – has been debated for decades. Theories range from an asteroid hit to global warming.
Jurikova said: “Our research provides the first precise reconstruction of the carbon source – and with it the trigger of the crisis.
“It also uncovers the subsequent chain of processes that resulted in Earth’s largest mass extinction.”
A once thriving and diverse ecosystem disappeared within tens of thousands of years – a geological blink of an eye. The cataclysm destroyed most trees, insects, plants, lizards – and even microbes. It happened long before the age of dinosaurs.
Jurikova’s international team analysed fossils of clam-like shellfish called brachiopods that lived on the seafloor.
Using the pH chemistry scale, they found the oceans turned acidic through a large pulse of CO2 into the atmosphere.
The source was traced to a giant volcanic eruption in today’s Siberia. At the time the planet’s landmass was one super-continent called Pangaea.
It spewed out more than 100,000 billion tonnes of the greenhouse gas.
This is over 40 times the amount of all available modern fossil fuel reserves since the industrial revolution.
A computer reconstruction showed global warming and acidification of the sea happened rapidly.
This was lethal to many organisms – especially those building calcium carbonate shells and skeletons.
Jurikova described it as “a cascading collapse of vital global cycles sustaining the environment”.
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