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Global Anoxia Ruled Out As Main Culprit In the P-T Extinction

Garin writes "The late Permian saw the greatest mass extinction event of all-time. The causes for this extinction are hotly debated, but one key piece of the puzzle has recently been revealed: while the deep-water environments were anoxic, shallower waters showed clear signs of being oxygenated. This rules out global anoxia, and strongly suggests that other factors, such as the Siberian Traps vulcanism, must have played a dominant role. From the article: 'Rather than the direct cause of global extinction, anoxia may be more a contributing factor along with numerous other impacts associated with Siberian Traps eruption and other perturbations to the Earth system.' See the full research article (behind a paywall) here."

12 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. A Breathtaking Report!! by NEDHead · · Score: 4, Funny

    or not...

    1. Re:A Breathtaking Report!! by Garin · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, ok. Though there's not much more that I could have written in that short of a space that can teach the subject.

      I linked the Calgary Herald / Postmedia News article because it's an astonishingly well-written bit of science journalism that lays it all out superbly – kudos to Randy Boswell. He didn't put *exactly* the same emphasis on exactly the same things that Proemse (the principal author) would have, but it's minor. That's the "public" piece, and it's full of tons of great information.

      I also linked the official research article. Unfortunately it's behind a paywall. However, if that's the kind of thing that really turns your crank you probably already have access to it one way or another (in the worst case: via a physical trip to your local university). If you can't, well, correspondence with an author is a time-honored method for obtaining your own copy.

      --
      In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it. -John Archibald Wheeler
    2. Re:A Breathtaking Report!! by Garin · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, I'll take that back about the emphasis bit. Boswell pretty well nails it right on the head. Now I'm looking through some of his other articles, and they're excellent.

      --
      In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it. -John Archibald Wheeler
    3. Re:A Breathtaking Report!! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Funny

      or not...

      It turns out that the reports of anoxia in the Permian were actually full of hot air.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  2. Re:Siberian Traps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The meteorite in the Yucatan was at the end of the Cretaceous period, they are referring to a proposed impact over 400 million years earlier due to some discoveries of a potential 300 mile wide impact crater in Antarctica... The Cretaceous extinction even only killed off about 75% of species as compared to 90% being killed off in the extinction that this article is about.

    Apparently, the super volcano in this case erupted for nearly a million years, warmed the oceans to 100 degrees F and forced all organic growth (as measured by coal deposits) to the poles. Whether caused by an impact or mantle event, it would be incredibly destructive to any 'society' living on the planet

  3. Damn Vulcans! by antifoidulus · · Score: 3, Funny

    I knew Dr. Spock was the one that killed the dinosaurs, "Captain, these giant bird-lizards are highly illogical and must be disposed of."

    1. Re:Damn Vulcans! by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dr. Spock was the one that killed the dinosaurs

      Over-zealous potty training can be lethal.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  4. Re:Gasping by able1234au · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And this is why people laugh at Deniers as they have no idea of the science or the problem.

  5. Re:Anoxia misread by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 4, Funny

    I read anoxia as anorexia.

    90% of all species died... but they were looking very stylish right up to that point...

    --
    You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  6. Re:Gasping by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, some people do care whether other people can survive. The point is simple: People will want to survive. If necessary, by floating on your corpse.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  7. Re:Gasping by able1234au · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sure, read Skeptical Science. Those quoted figures are from one single location and may not reflect what was happening elsewhere. This site is an excellent example of good science and they have extensive responses to the common denier arguments. I would recommend spending some time there.

    Also, keep in mind that the issue is what is forcing the increase. The 400PPM is not going away in our lifetime nor our grandchildren's lifetime. This problem will get worse not better. And of course 12,000 years ago the population was a lot smaller. The total world population probably never exceeded 15 million inhabitants before the invention of agriculture so with 7 Billion people alive today the impact of a warmer environment is likely to be higher than it was 12,000 years ago.

  8. This is relatively good news. by dr2chase · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Given that we show every sign of running the CO2-enhancement experiment to completion, it is reassuring to know that this low-probability but extremely-high-cost outcome is that much more unlikely. (To my warmist comrades -- given a choice between losing a toe, a leg, or a life, we know which choice we would most want to avoid, but that does not mean the remaining choices are good. Anoxia is among the worst of the outcomes, far worse than the middle of the US becoming uninhabitable or the seas rising 100 feet. And to you denier bozos -- greenhouse science is cut-and-dried stuff, with only the detailed outcomes unclear, but it's also clear that between natural human greed and your foolish efforts, we will almost certainly burn all the fossil fuels we can until something truly alarming occurs. Perhaps we have overestimated the effects of the current CO2 levels -- but that's okay, we're just going to keep on burning it till we see an effect, and a big and unambiguous one.)