A Larson classic:
Posted on 04/03/2006 8:04:18 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CAVE JUNCTION, Ore. - John Roth shined his flashlight on a black streak flowing through the cream-colored marble forming the walls of the Oregon Caves.
The graphite line is graphic evidence of dramatic global warming that consumed so much oxygen that it nearly wiped out all life on the planet 247 million years ago, said the natural resources specialist for the Oregon Caves National Monument.
"It was the biggest extinction by far of all time," he said. "Geologists and paleontologists all agree on that. ... The extinction that killed the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago, that wasn't anything compared to this."
Yet, like the huge meteor striking the Gulf of Mexico that many scientists believe wiped out the dinosaurs, the global warming at the end of the Permian period resulted in deadly amounts of carbon dioxide that killed most land animals, he said.
Scientists aren't certain what caused the episode some 247 million years ago. They estimate that temperatures ranged in the low 100s year-round for thousands of years, he said.
"Its kind of scary that we don't know for sure what caused the worst catastrophe of life on this planet," he said.
The graphite lines, whose significance was recently recognized, are not unique to the caves, which were formed perhaps half a million years ago, he said.
Roth is a geologist by training and a former science teacher who has worked as a natural resource specialist at the monument for 17 years.
He said the new evidence suggests that "we had a runaway hothouse effect because of the excess carbon dioxide. There was so much carbon dioxide introduced into the atmosphere, mostly from methane from the oceans."
That carbon dioxide build-up alone would have killed off most oxygen-breathing species, he said.
With the annual caves tour season under way, this latest discovery will give guides yet another scientific topic to discuss with visitors.
Another is the fact a jaguar fossil found in the caves in 1995 was recently dated by a Canadian expert to be 32,800 years old, making it one of the oldest known jaguar fossils found in North America, Roth said.
Grizzly fossils thousands of years old were found in 1997 by a team mapping the far interior of the caves. Half a dozen previously undescribed species of insects, including a relic from the last Ice Age, also have been found there.
Yeah, right.
Ha.....
Thanks for posting this.
And the Sun wasn't as hot back then either,....from an earlier thread.
"Was he there?"
Never in a hundred, never in a thousand, never in a million years.
More Evolutionary Fairy Tale crap! A long time ago in a far away place ..... blah, blah, blah
A Larson classic:
I was a lot younger then as well!
If I remember correctly, it was a very dry spring as well.
I think that cartoon is pretty funny and I smoke.
And just how do they know this to be true? Was he there taking the temperature 247 million years ago? Oh, let me guess, in one of his past lives he was an ancient meteorologist. It could happen.
"And just how do they know this to be true?"
Not sure about the temp data, but the mass extinction can clearly be seen in the fossil record. The best fossil beds from this era are in the Karoo area of South Africa. 90% of the life in the world doesn't disappear without some pretty extreme conditions. So we know something very extreme happened.
It's something called "Science" and it involves spending upwards of 8-10 years in school, and then years of work in the field, by dozens and dozens of people.
You're not going to get a full explanation of how temperatures are estimated millions of years ago from a short AP wire service article. However, I doubt you'd read anything longer on the subject.
"Roth is a geologist by training and a former science teacher who has worked as a natural resource specialist at the monument for 17 years."
BUNK - Pure environmental babble-trash ... The MAIN explination that historical geologists give for the mass extention at the Permian/Triassic boundry is changing sea levels caused by GLACIATION and GLOBAL COOLING, not carbon dioxide.
"Although the cause of the Permian mass extinction remains a debate, numerous theories have been formulated to explain the events of the extinction. One of the most current theories for the mass extinction of the Permian is an agent that has been also held responsible for the Ordovician and Devonian crises, glaciation on Gondwana. A similar glaciation event in the Permian would likely produce mass extinction in the same manner as previous, that is, by a global widespread cooling and/or worldwide lowering of sea level."
http://hannover.park.org/Canada/Museum/extinction/permcause.html
Brilliance........
Well, 90's Jags did have an overheating problem, but it was usually a faulty water pump.
Actually it appears the site you cite, and a handful of others, are flat out wrong or confused.
Certainly the more recent cites and articles and the more fully explained articles, and by far the majority, attribute the Permian extinction to warming, not cooling.
I wonder if some sites are confusing the Permian extinction and the "Snowball Earth" hundreds of millions of years earlier.
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