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World's Biggest Extinction Event: Massive Volcanic Eruption, Burning Coal and Accelerated Greenhouse Gas Choked out Life (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110123131014.htm)

QuoteScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2011) â€" About 250 million years about 95 per cent of life was wiped out in the sea and 70 per cent on land. Researchers at the University of Calgary believe they have discovered evidence to support massive volcanic eruptions burnt significant volumes of coal, producing ash clouds that had broad impact on global oceans...

Of the 'Big Five' extinctions the one at the end of the Permian was the biggest and its causes have caused debate since its discovery.

Yeah I read this story earlier today, and you'll never guess where I found it - Fox News!!!  

Nice find, Tank.  I'd heard theories regarding the effect of the event which resulted in the Siberian Traps before; it's cool that they've got some solid evidence to go forward with.  There are similar theories regarding the Deccan Traps, though the meteoroid impact (Chicxulub) which occurred during the same era as that event is thought to have had a greater effect.

I must say I find this sort of thing absolutly fascinating and why I have zero tolerance for Young Earth Creationists (YECs). Just getting to grips with the age of the Earth is quite an exercise in itself. I have just finished reading First Life (http://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Attenboroughs-First-Life-Journey/dp/0007365241/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295944155&sr=1-1) by David Attenbrough. It's not a rigorous scientific work but it is highly accessible and an  eminently readable account of life from 630 million to 400 million years ago and very much worth a read. We are so lucky to be alive when evidence trumps superstition. If we think we have trouble with delusional fundamentalists now can you just imagine what the likes of Darwin, Galileo and James Hutton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hutton) had to put up with? Hutton was a devout Christian but because he suggested that the Earth was more than few thousand years old he was accused of being an atheist!

I watched a documentary on the History channel Wednesday. It was called How the Earth was Made. It was super interesting and explained this very event! I'm gonna have to read that book because this kind of stuff is definitely fascinating.

A very accessible book that covers an awful lot of this ground is Bill Bryson's A Short History Of Nearly Everything. It's a bit woolly in places, and he employs the usual treatment of entropy, but it's reasonably well-researched and a good read to boot.

That's probably the biggest mass extinction in history so far. But I wonder if humankind's present activities are creating a new one (actually it's already started) that could ultimately be even bigger.

Quote from: "grim-reaper"That's probably the biggest mass extinction in history so far. But I wonder if humankind's present activities are creating a new one (actually it's already started) that could ultimately be even bigger.

Mass extinctions have been characterised by ecosystem collapse. If our activities influence our environment beyond a 'tipping point' then there is a possibility that there could be an ecosystem collapse. However in the past these collapses have coincided with truly massive natural events where there was no possibility of control. The world population has acted in the past, in the case of CFCs. We can but hope that it does again with CO2.

Quote from: "hackenslash"A very accessible book that covers an awful lot of this ground is Bill Bryson's A Short History Of Nearly Everything. It's a bit woolly in places, and he employs the usual treatment of entropy, but it's reasonably well-researched and a good read to boot.

An outstanding book, and an excellent recommendation.

Thanks, Tank, for the article.