A powerful El Niño cycle, driven by a massive release of carbon dioxide, may have contributed to Earth’s largest mass extinction about 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, new research suggests. Volcanic eruptions in what is now Siberia released massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, leading to drastic climate change. These changes led to the extinction of 90 percent of species on Earth. Although events like this are rare in the past, they have profound implications for today’s climate crisis.
The impact of Siberian volcanic eruptions
The eruption of the Siberian Traps, a series of massive volcanic fissures, spewed massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This phenomenon caused extreme global warming, which led to a series of long-lasting and severe El Niño events.
Alex Farnsworth, a paleoclimate modeler at the University of Bristol, told Live Science that during this period, temperatures rose far beyond the limits to which life had adapted over thousands of years, pushing species beyond their limits. On land, forests that helped absorb carbon dioxide were destroyed, worsening the atmospheric crisis.
How climate change has affected oceans and land
The study’s lead author, Yadong Sun, a geologist at China University of Geosciences, found that the temperature gradient between the western and eastern parts of Panthalassa, an ancient ocean, weakened during the warming period. The ocean became too warm for most marine life to survive, especially as tropical waters reached 40°C. On land, animals dependent on forests struggled to survive as extreme heat and loss of vegetation created a feedback loop that worsened survival conditions.
Contemporary Implications
Although carbon dioxide concentrations during the Permian were much higher than today’s 419 ppm, the rapid rate at which humans are adding carbon to the atmosphere has the potential to lead to similar destabilizing effects.
