Science
Burning Fossil Fuels Helped Drive Earth’s Most Massive Extinction – The New York Times
Massive volcanic eruptions ignited oil and coal deposits in Siberia in the events that led to the Permian-Triassic “Great Dying” event.
As the planet warmed, the oceans absorbed more and more carbon dioxide. This caused waters to acidify to the point that organisms like corals would have dissolved, explained Hana Jurikova, a biogeochemist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who led the study. Dr. Jurikova and her team discovered spikes of the element boron a proxy for acidity levels in fossil brachiopod shells found in rocks in Italy that stretch across the extinction boundary.
For the first time, were able to explain what…
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