Russian volcanoes fingered for Earth's largest mass extinction

highlighting the tiny amount of time that humans have been on the planet in the perspective of its 5 billion year history

FAKE NEWS!

As all right-thinking Christians know, the world was created in 4004 BC.

How would this affect aquatic species? They have extra filtering. I suppose it could also have affected the pH of water but if their were substantial changes to water chemistry one might expect extra halides to turn up in later sedimentary rocks.

By 'eck,

Lasting a million years, wiping out life - that sounds like a description of the effects of #Brexit!

Don't let FARTWIG see this, he will put even more sanctions on Russia for their past misdemeanours, and probably setup sanctions against Mexico for the Chicxulub impact.

"The largest mass extinction event in Earth's history MAY have been driven by incredibly violent million-year long volcanic explosions that destroyed the ozone layer some 250 million years ago."

Then again it may not, the eruptions could have been the side effect of a large impact body.

'Closer to home, there are nice rift valleys in the German Rhine region; the Midland Valley in Scotland, the North Sea and a hidden one running north-south under the West Midlands.'

Would that be near the route for HS2?

Missing Halogen

Interesting that there is no mention of Fluorine, which was a major killer as a result of the 1783 Laki eruption (altogether, killed about 25% of the population of Iceland). If you think losing the ozone layer is bad, try fluoridosis.

Time for another one?

We have not had an even moderate eruption for a long time - just one super volcano erupting tomorrow (say at 0.01% of the Siberian level) would solve much of the current political problems and upend our society. I'm not wishing for this, but let's face it - we're about 10,000% unprepared for an Earth changing event.

Bah!

So the theory is that everything got suntanned to death because the air was full of halogens?

How about everything choked to death because of all the halogens in the air and dissolving in the sea?

In Soviet Russia..

Volcanoes erupt YOU!!

(gets coat, asbestos lined obviously)

Is this revealing the latest weapon in the evil dictator Putin's armory? These scientists will need to be careful using door handles, or perfume bottles.

The Human Explosion

A friend of mine is writing since ages on this work of his, 'Pearls of Doom', which is about an earth that is lived upon by 200 billion people - having completly 'machined out' the planet. Based on the asumption of there still being a lot of planet that is still in its original, unmined shape: everything 10 kilometers below our feet. ... Only, what's the point being a being that due to random pressures will change - even in a 'machined out' world. Where machines are an integral part of the ecology to keep the planet going - a removal would certainly evoke a crisis. ... (for the biblical note: Jezus would probably have given a total blank on what was just said, given his somewhat rural upbringing, so let's leave that poor man alone with his troubles wih his rather violent father that ends up liki... killing his son... His life is already s***ty enough.)

Ozone panic

Well, the "Warming Earth" panic has gotten out of the public eye in the last two cold years so back to the "Ozone Layer" mongering of old. I'm sure human activity will be found somehow responsible for volcanic activity as well.

Call me crazy, but wasn't this a story in other media (its even been on the Science and Discovery channels since) about five or ten years back.

This is a 'filler item' ... right.

Warp core breach

Your average Muggle (tm) has *NO IDEA* of the violence of a typical volcanic eruption.

It was said that during the initial stages of Krakatoa going KABOOM the ocean "froze" for a split second. To get a reaction like that implies total energy release of around 190 megatons.

For perspective the Tsar Bomba was a mere 57 megatons and that produced a plume about the same as the recent eruption of Eyjafjallajökull and that disrupted flights for weeks: TB would have done if detonated at ground level.

If Yellowstone (please not in my lifetime) blew its top or for that matter the ones in Indonesia or Siberia we would be looking at a minimum of 3-5c global temperature collapse and a death toll in the 900M range just from climatic effects alone. Conservative estimate for the last eruption is in the 10,000MT range.