Posted on 01/21/2005 7:09:59 AM PST by Zon
Two hundred and fifty million years ago, the majority of life on earth may have suffocated.
The "Great Dying," a catastrophic event that killed 90 percent of Earth's marine life and 75 percent of the life on land, was caused by a combination of warmer temperatures and lower oxygen levels, according to a recent study by researchers at the University of Washington.
In other words, the extinction was precipitated by global warming, rather than an asteroid collision, the reigning theory.
The findings, to be published in the magazine Science, are largely based on comparisons of fossils found in South Africa's Karoo Basin and in China. Chemical, biological and magnetic materials found in the fossils from both sites are quite similar. Further, there is a lack of evidence in the Karoo fossils pointing to a sudden collision between planetary objects.
"The marine extinction and the land extinction appear to be simultaneous, based on the geochemical evidence we found," paleontologist Peter Ward said in a statement. "Animals and plants both on land and in the sea were dying at the same time, and apparently from the same causes--too much heat and too little oxygen." Ward believes that continuous volcanic eruptions from an area known as the Siberian Traps bathed the planet in methane, which warmed temperatures. Concurrently, oxygen levels in the atmosphere dropped to 16 percent, the equivalent of living on a 14,000-foot mountain. Scientists and the public have debated the causes and dangers of global warming for years. While a number of scientists believe that global temperatures rise and fall in cycles, many believe human activity is currently contributing to an upward spike in temperatures.
Either way, things are getting warmer. A spring-summer sea lane running across the top of Siberia is expected to open in a few years.
The mass extinction occurred at the boundary between the Permian and Triassic periods at a time when all land was concentrated in a supercontinent called Pangaea. The dinosaurs went extinct at a later time, but many reptiles expired in the Permian extinction. Later, the Permian creatures were reincarnated as Texas crude oil.
Global warming? B.S. We already have record breaking cold weather, one of the coldest years recorded, more rain and snow. If anything, the ice caps will probably grow this year because of the colder yearly climate over all.
Just wait till spring. We are going to have flooding like we have never seen before, due in part to the ground having been saterated at freeze up, water tables at their max levels, and 10 times more snow than normal, with much more yet to fall. There is nowhere for this water to go.
Because the ground was saturated at freeze up, the frost and ice is deep into the soil, which is going to take much longer to thaw. Areas more north will most likely see a growth further to the south of the permafrost. If We have another below average cold summer season, the polar ice caps will no doubt grow. Another cause of this will be because of all this water we will have this spring, with flows north diluting the salinity of the arctic waters, which will then freeze at a higher temperature.
All the "save the polarbear" groups will be out of luck trying to suck people out of their money.
An ant digging an ant hill cannot affect the global temperature. The environmentalist think they are the supreme being when, as was just demonstrated by the 9.1 earthquake, the cycles of the earth will continue to do as they have done and are intended to do. If it was an oxygen problem that why did not 100% of life vanish? Why did mammals survive when they are the prime users of oxygen?
At the time of the Permian extinction mammals hadn't evolved yet, so there weren't any.
I've yet to meet any animal (lizards, birds, earthworms) that don't breathe oxygen, so I don't get your point. I've also yet to meet a plant that doesn't breath carbon dioxide, so lack of O-2 would only indicate an imbalance of plants vs. animals. 100% oxygen deprivation on a planetary scale is impossible.
Characteristic strata/fossils in Eastern Kansas.
I think the evidence shows that something poisoned the ocean, which then wrecked the atmosphere.
The statement Later, the Permian creatures were reincarnated as Texas crude oil. is probably not true.
People seem to be fixated on the idea oil is from dead animals, I've noticed.
It's actually from microscopic marine algae, of course. But people don't really have a tangible conception of "microscopic marine algae."
It's kind'a difficult to ignore the damn big hole in the Carribean, isn't it? Or do they have to actually fall in to recognize a 'hole'. How 'bout the associated Iridium anomaly?
A while back they claimed an meteor did them in.
Now they tell me the earth got hot and cooked them.
Wake me in a few years, when "they" are dead and gone.
Oil is made mostly of plant material, not creatures. it's actually a renewable resource, it just takes a few million years. I have a developing oil field right in my back yard. 80 aces of peat bog which gets thicker every year. eventually it will get buried and in a few million years It will be ready to drill. Or it can turn into a natural gas field first. Right now it a great duck hunting and deer area. :o)
Could someone checkout the statement that 16% oxygen is the equivalent to being at 14,000 feet? I seem to recall that around 18,000 feet the partial pressure of oxygen is about 50% of normal or the equivalent of 10% oxygen. It's the same percentage of oxygen(20%), just the atmospheric pressure is about half that of sea level.
Changing World Technologies has a process for doing the same thing real time. Convert any hydrocarbon material into oil and other petroleum products. http://www.changingworldtech.com/
huffman, the post is about the mass extinction in the Triassic, not the "death of the dinosaurs" - which does indeed seem to be linked to that very very big crater (Chixlylub astrobleme?) and the iridium layer at the 65-my layer world wide.
Cincinnatus is right on top of this, as usual.
Sigh. Might want to read the article. This is the PERMIAN extinction, which was long before the Cretaceous Extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs. There weren't any dinosaurs in the Permian.
Your peat bog is going to become a bed of coal eventually; not oil.
Most vertebrate survivors of the Permian extinction were mammal-like reptiles, protomammals named Therapsida, which were warm-blooded, often furry, and showed evidence of a most unreptilian higher metabolism. In the early Triassic, they rapidly diversified and became the dominant carnivores and herbivores in the lush, fern- and conifer-rich floodplains. Some 80 percent of the large vertebrate fossils we find from the early Triassic period are therapsids.
I know-Thermo-depolymerization. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1125_031125_turkeyoil.html
It's a feasable process that can solve alot of waste problems at the same time, especially material that rendering plants can no longer put into animal feed.
That depends on other factors. Coal isn't likely because the tameracs shed tons of needles into the mix, which have alot of oil in them. It's not likely to make it that far into the future if I have any say about it. Peat sells well. In the summer people come and give me money, dig it up for their lawns and gardens.
..fill in the gruesome details...
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