Xtra News Community 2
March 29, 2024, 09:56:04 pm
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Welcome to Xtra News Community 2 — please also join our XNC2-BACKUP-GROUP.
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links BITEBACK! XNC2-BACKUP-GROUP Staff List Login Register  

NEWS: Ancient eruption killed off sea life

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: NEWS: Ancient eruption killed off sea life  (Read 116 times)
0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.
DazzaMc
Don't give me Karma!
Moderator
Absolutely Fabulously Incredibly Shit-Hot Member
*
Posts: 5557


« on: May 29, 2009, 08:21:12 am »

A HUGE volcanic eruption in China some 260 million years ago led to the sudden extermination of marine life clear around the world.
 
British paleontologists, in a report being published this week in the journal Science were able to pinpoint the exact timing of the massive eruption thanks to a layer of fossilised rock which showed mass extinction of different life forms - clearly linking the volcanic blasts to a major environmental catastrophe.

"The abrupt extinction of marine life we can clearly see in the fossil record firmly links giant volcanic eruptions with global environmental catastrophe," said Paul Wignall, a professor and palaeontologist at the University of Leeds, who was the lead author of the research paper.

The eruption in southwest China unleashed about a half million cubic kilometres of lava, covering an area five times the size of Wales, according to the research by scientists at the British university.

The mass extinction of ocean life came about because of the collision of fast flowing lava with shallow sea water, which caused a violent explosion at the start of the eruptions and threw huge quantities of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere.

"When fast flowing, low viscosity magma meets shallow sea ... there's spectacular explosion producing gigantic clouds of steam," Prof Wignall said.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25554900-23109,00.html
« Last Edit: May 29, 2009, 10:42:53 am by DazzaMc » Report Spam   Logged

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter


Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Open XNC2 Smileys
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum


Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy
Page created in 0.053 seconds with 14 queries.