GEOG 1200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Siberian Traps, Volcanic Winter, Arctic Methane Emissions
30 Dec 2017
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The day the earth nearly died notes: the permian extinction wiped out around 95% of all life on earth. The fossil record showed that the rock beds at the end of the permian period contained absolutely no fossils, no signs of life at all. Almost all scientists agree the permian extinction was the biggest recorded event of its kind in the history of the world: the siberian traps might have destroyed the world. First, there would have been eruptions sending thousands of tons of dust and ashes into the sky. Slowly the sun would have been blocked out and the temperatures would have fallen. This would have caused a volcanic winter lasting decades. As the skies cleared, vast quantities of gas given off by lava would have slowly trapped the earth in a blanket of carbon dioxide causing a massive global warming.
