The Great Mass Extinction of the End-Permian

The End-Permian mass extinction is by far the greatest mass extinction of all time, yet not long ago, the very idea of mass extinction was rejected by the scientific community. In the 1800's scientists debated about mass extinction and Earth's geologic history. On one side you had the uniformitarian's, who believed that earth's natural processes operate at a constant rate. On the other side were the catastrophists, who believed in the opposite; that the features on earth and mass extinctions could be explained by catalyzing events and disasters, such as comet impacts, violent volcano eruptions, etc. In the 1800's, and half of the 1900's, the uniformitarian theory was the accepted explanation of Earth's history, backed by the vigorous studies of renown geologist Charles Lyell and the Bible. Catastrophist beliefs and investigations were shunned by the scientific community.

We now know that the catastrophists were right, however it was only during the past 50 years or so, that further investigations into the catastrophist explanation of Earth's history had been made. With new technologies and greater knowledge, scientists could date rocks much better and use physics equations to calculate the results of catastrophes. It was the discovery of the crater, located in the Gulf of Mexico, from the comet impact that killed off the dinosaurs, that Catastrophism was accepted.

Scientists were able to find further evidence, such as a crater off the Gulf of Mexico, date the rocks and fossils more precisely, and found evidence of an iridium surplus that can only be explained by a vast amount being carried from a comet or asteroid to Earth and to use physics equations, that backed up this theory of devastation, caused by a massive crater striking the earth. Catastrophism was officially recognized as a valid and substantial part of Earth's history and since it had become so well established, further investigations into the End Permian mass extinction could be pursued.

The end-Permian event is the most devastating mass extinction of all time, having thrown the world into great turmoil and chaos. In comparison to the KT event (the mass extinction that took place between the Cretaceous and the Tertiary period, which wiped out the dinosaurs), where 50% of the species disappeared, the End Permian extinction was much more destructive, killing 90% of all species.

There were many theories presented surrounding the cause of the End Permian extinction. For example, one theory was another comet impact, far greater then the one of the KT mass extinction, however this is still widely debated, as no impact crater of proper size has been discovered(if it exists) and the evidence supporting the theory is widely disputed, due to differences of measurements and dating problems. Another theory was cosmic rays from the sun, which sterilized life on Earth, however this theory had many holes in it's explanation. The leading theory is that the main cause was a series of massive volcano eruptions in Siberia that spewed gases into the atmosphere and released methane, carbon and gas hydrates. This led to a chain of catastrophic events.

It is believed that the end Permian event was caused by the eruptions of the Siberian volcanoes and traps. The eruptions led to gas ejections into the atmosphere, distorting the normal appearance of the sky, especially the sunrises and sunsets, filling them with vibrant colors. These gases were chlorine, fluorine, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide which led to global warming. The rise in temperature heated up the oceans, which made them more anoxic, killing lots of sea life. The temperature also melted the frozen gas hydrates which released vast amounts of methane and carbon into the atmosphere, leading to a runoff greenhouse effect. Many aquatic animal and plant life died in the ocean, suffocated to death. The sulfur dioxide, created acid rain which had dreadful affects on life. It poisoned the water, further killing aquatic plants and animals.

On land it killed plants by the masses. With no more plants, there were no roots to hold the soil together, and the acid rain eroded the soil into the oceans, leaving only barren rock behind, where new plants couldn't grow back. With no plants, plant eating animals died, as did predators that ate herbivores, thus disrupting the food chain. Climate change also had some effect. And there you have it, mass extinction from starvation, suffocation and climate change. Further more, it is believed but not confirmed that the sulfur dioxide may have caused a snap glaciation in some parts of the world, leading to further mass extinctions from changing temperatures and the lowering of sea levels, however there is very little evidence to show that their was glaciation.