THE GREAT DYING: Hot ocean water blamed for ancient mass extinction

WASHINGTON — Scientists think they’ve figured out the falling dominoes that led to Earth’s largest mass extinction and worry that human-caused climate change puts the planet on a vaguely similar path.

Some 250 million years ago, about 90% of sea life and 70% of land life went extinct in what is now called the Great Dying. Scientists have long speculated that massive volcanic outbursts triggered the cataclysmic event, but how that worked was still a bit fuzzy. It wasn’t the lava itself.

A new study in Thursday’s journal Science used complex computer simulations to plot out what happened after the volcanoes blew: It led to ocean temperatures rising by about 20 degrees (11 degrees Celsius), which then starved the seawater of oxygen. That hot oxygen-starved water caused the mass marine die-off, especially farther from the equator.

After the volcanoes blew, the level of heat-trapping carbon dioxide soared to a level more than 12 times what it is today , said study lead author Justin Penn, an Earth sciences researcher at the University of Washington.

Water loses oxygen when it warms, much like a warm can of cola goes flat, Penn said. Scientists looked at dozens of modern species to see what happens to them in warmer, oxygen-starved water and that helped them understand the past extinction.


https://canoe.com/technology/the-great-dying-hot-ocean-water-blamed-for-ancient-mass-extinction

We're supposedly in the midst of the sixth 'great extinction' to be visited on this planet...

I wonder who will be running the show when the 7th episode rolls around in a few million more years ???

Because I certainly doubt that it will be homo sapiens.

What will be the effect of the polar ice melt in all this, will the oceans cool or isn't there enough ice for that, what about salinity, not to mention the dispersal of the global conveyor belt that keeps the northern lands as warm as they are and flooding of major coastal cities. Seems we (all species) are doomed which ever way we go.

Vintage wrote:What will be the effect of the polar ice melt in all this, will the oceans cool or isn't there enough ice for that, what about salinity, not to mention the dispersal of the global conveyor belt that keeps the northern lands as warm as they are and flooding of major coastal cities. Seems we (all species) are doomed which ever way we go.

If you look at the natural history of Earth, and how many mass extinctions there have been, there does seem to be a cycle of extinction/flourish/repeat.

The only tweaking that human beings have done to this cycle is to make it happen faster (probably faster than evolution can keep up with) and to do it on purpose.

Adapt or die 

Though I doubt the current crop of wussiefied snowflakes would be capable of adapting to what will amount to a harsher and crueler world...far too busy being offended and inventing evermore genders and excuses.

Ben, how can it be done on purpose, no one goes out and deliberately tries to destroy the earth. They do it unthinkingly in the quest for power or money or ignorance !