A variation of this:
Posted on 01/23/2011 12:15:09 PM PST by decimon
Massive volcanic eruption, burning coal and accelerated greenhouse gas choked out life
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.
"This could literally be the smoking gun that explains the latest Permian extinction," says Dr. Steve Grasby, adjunct professor in the University of Calgary's Department of Geoscience and research scientist at Natural Resources Canada.
Grasby and colleagues discovered layers of coal ash in rocks from the extinction boundary in Canada's High Arctic that give the first direct proof to support this and have published their findings in Nature Geoscience.
Unlike end of dinosaurs, 65 million years ago, where there is widespread belief that the impact of a meteorite was at least the partial cause, it is unclear what caused the late Permian extinction. Previous researchers have suggested massive volcanic eruptions through coal beds in Siberia would generate significant greenhouse gases causing run away global warming.
"Our research is the first to show direct evidence that massive volcanic eruptions – the largest the world has ever witnessed –caused massive coal combustion thus supporting models for significant generation of greenhouse gases at this time," says Grasby.
At the time of the extinction, the Earth contained one big land mass, a supercontinent known as Pangaea. The environment ranged from desert to lush forest. Four-limbed vertebrates were becoming more diverse and among them were primitive amphibians, early reptiles and synapsids: the group that would, one day, include mammals.
The location of volcanoes, known as the Siberian Traps, are now found in northern Russia, centred around the Siberian city Tura and also encompass Yakutsk, Noril'sk and Irkutsk. They cover an area just under two-million-square kilometers, a size greater than that of Europe. The ash plumes from the volcanoes traveled to regions now in Canada's arctic where coal-ash layers where found.
Grasby studied the formations with Dr. Benoit Beauchamp, a professor in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Calgary. They called upon Dr. Hamed Sanei adjunct professor at the University of Calgary and a researcher at NRCan to look at some of peculiar organic layers they had discovered.
"We saw layers with abundant organic matter and Hamed immediately determined that they were layers of coal-ash, exactly like that produced by modern coal burning power plants," says Beauchamp.
Sanei adds: "Our discovery provides the first direct confirmation for coal ash during this extinction as it may not have been recognized before."
The ash, the authors suggest, may have caused even more trouble for a planet that was already heating up with its oceans starting to suffocate because of decreasing oxygen levels.
"It was a really bad time on Earth. In addition to these volcanoes causing fires through coal, the ash it spewed was highly toxic and was released in the land and water, potentially contributing to the worst extinction event in earth history," says Grasby.
During the Permian herbaceous matter, such as trees and other plants, would die and be buried under silt. The bacteria that eats such matter today did not yet exist then and this plant material eventually metamorphosed (due to extreme pressure and heat underground) into coal. That is why coal is referred to as a ‘fossil fuel’.
Dinosaurs have nothing to do with the formation of coal, natural gas, or petroleum.
of cousre He could......but why???
A variation of this:
Not a joke, just a simple question.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." - Proverbs 1:7
Scoffing will hurt your mind in the presence of such scientific wealth.
Ha!
"For the invisible things of Him, both His eternal power and divine characteristics, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being perceived by the things made, so that they would be without excuse." - Romans 1:20
"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." - Psalm 19:1
"Behold, you scoffers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which you will in no way believe, if one declares it to you." - Acts 13:41
"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts." - 2 Peter 3:3
Laughing...that was clever.
Appreciate the quick lesson.
I thought I was being more obvious than I apparently was.
Contrary to popular opinion, I do know where coal comes from. If you take my remark knowing that, perhaps you’ll think it is funny as I intended - or perhaps not.
Using the terminology of hate.
Toxic Gases Caused World’s Worst Extinction
Discovery News | 2/4/09 | Michael Reilly
Posted on 02/04/2009 1:26:44 PM PST by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2178427/posts
Toxins may have doomed ancient forests
Discovery | July 14, 2009 | Michael Reilly
Posted on 07/15/2009 7:23:55 AM PDT by decimon
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2293105/posts
Scientists Find Signs of Meteor Crash That Led to Extinctions in Era Before DinosaursDr. Becker, Dr. Poreda and their colleagues had previously found buckyballs at an impact crater in Sudbury, Canada, and in two meteorites. They have also found buckyballs containing similar types of gases in sediments dating from the dinosaur extinctions.
by Kenneth Chang
February 23, 2001
In the experiments, the scientists extracted buckyballs -- not just the typical sphere consisting of 60 carbon atoms, but also larger versions with up to 160 atoms -- from the sediments with organic solvents.
They then opened the buckyballs to release the helium and argon inside them. The nuclei of most helium atoms consist of two protons and two neutrons. A few -- one out of 700,000 helium atoms in the atmosphere -- are a lighter version, with only one neutron. For the helium in the buckyballs, a much larger fraction -- one out of 5,000 -- was the lighter version, similar to the ratio produced by fusion in stars.
The argon indicated a similar story, with low concentrations of a version that is commonly produced on Earth from the radioactive decay of potassium.
"I think the argon isotope ratio measurement is very convincing," said Dr. Kenneth A. Farley, a professor of geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. "That's very hard to understand if it's not extraterrestrial."Asteroid 'destroyed life 250m years ago'Earth's biggest mass extinction 251 million years ago was triggered by a collision with a comet or asteroid, US scientists say. They have reached this conclusion by looking at atoms from a star trapped inside molecular cages of carbon...
by Dr David Whitehouse
Friday, February 23, 2001
In rock layers laid down at the time, there is a much higher concentration of complex carbon molecules called fullerenes that have different types, or isotopes, of helium and argon trapped inside them. These molecules could only have been delivered from space, the researchers say...
The researchers believe these particular fullerenes are extraterrestrial because the gases trapped inside have an unusual ratio of isotopes that indicate they were made in the atmosphere of a star that exploded before our Sun was born...
The telltale fullerenes were extracted from sites in Japan, China and Hungary, where the sedimentary layer at the boundary between the Permian and Triassic periods had been exposed...
The research was made difficult because there are few 251-million-year-old rocks left on Earth. Most rocks of that age have been recycled through the planet's tectonic processes...
Researchers estimate the comet or asteroid was six to 12 km (3.7 - 7.4 miles) across, or about the size of the asteroid believed responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs 67 million years ago...
The mass extinction of 251 million years ago was the greatest on record.
...believe they have discovered evidence to support massive volcanic eruptions burnt significant volumes of coal...They got the idea watching Mike Nesmith's backyard BBQ sketch.
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I don’t thnk there was enough coal in the affected area.
Years ago there was commercial that featured cartoon dinosaurs popping out of an automobile gas tank and roaring.
Unfortunately some poor souls out there who don’t know any better believe whatever they see on TV. Not you, obviously, but you get my drift. So I produce the spiel about buried trees and plants....
I think that most coal comes from the Carboniferous period about 350 mya and way before the P-Tr extinction.
Yes, you are correct.Carboniferous period it is.
Darwin himself had trouble explaining the discontinuities he found in the geologic record. His "theory" had holes in it; he knew it and actually owned up to it. That didn't stop others from taking his work, turning it upside down and creating the theory of evolution from whole cloth.
I truly get P!$$#D about this nonsense. Junk science bought and paid for primarily with our tax dollars.
Well, enough of that. I'll just give myself heartburn...
The “hot steaming primordial soup” probably occurred around 3 billion years ago. This event was around 250 million years ago when there were 4 limbed land vertebrates running around. My theory is that a very large boloid may have punched into Siberia and set off the Siberian Trappes. The same thing may have also happened on the west side of India and set off the Deccan Trappes around 65 million years ago. Google Shiva Crater and Dr. Chattergee. If is apparently much larger than the Yucatan Crater that is getting most of the credit for the dinosaur extinction.
The impact that formed the Yucatan crater may have done the job on its own, but it would surprise to find that it was one of a doublet impact, two or more chunks of the same parent body which had broken up prior to the terminal rendezvous.
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