news article on natural diasaters
Sunday, July 19, 2009 @ 2:20 AM
19 july 2009Mass volcanic eruption nearly ended life on earthA volcanic eruption nearly obliterated all life on earth 260 million years ago, new research has revealed
The blast was on a scale that has never been seen by humans and happened even before dinosaurs came along when Earth teemed with creatures which are now extinct.
Lava and ash spewed up from beneath a shallow ocean that once covered Emeishan in southwestern China and rained down on primitive plants and animals across a single supercontinent known as Pangea - which later split into Africa, South America, Australia and Antarctica.
It unleashed around half a million cubic kilometers of lava, covering an area five times the size of Wales.Scientists were able to pinpoint the exact timing of the eruption and directly link it to a mass extinction event because the lava appears now as a distinctive layer of igneous rock formed from magma sandwiched between sedimentary rock containing easily datable fossilised marine life.
There was also a mass extinction of life on Earth when 96 percent of all ocean species and about 70 percent of all land species became extinct.
Giant explosive eruptions such as these may have impacted the planet's climate because large eruption columns could spread ash particles and toxic gasses into the upper atmosphere and around the globe.
Reported by Elizabeth Wong
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