Could Siberian volcanism have caused the Earth's largest extinction event?
Monday, January 9, 2012 - 15:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Around 250 million years ago there was a mass extinction so severe that it remains the most traumatic known species die-off in Earth's history. Although the cause of this event is a mystery, it has been speculated that the eruption of a large swath of volcanic rock in Russia was a trigger for the extinction. New research offers insight into how this volcanism could have contributed to drastic deterioration in the global environment of the period.