Mass Extinction Easier To Trigger Than Thought

Ars Technica writes Mass extinction easier to trigger than thought "In what scientists call the end-Triassic mass extinction, at least half of all living species simply disappear from the fossil record. The die-off didn’t merely cause ecological disruption. It was so sudden and profound that planetary chemical cycles went haywire for the next several million years."

"Rather than 600,000 years of volcanic activity choking Earth’s atmosphere with carbon dioxide, just a few thousand years apparently sufficed to raise ocean temperatures so that potent greenhouse gases trapped in seafloor mud came bubbling up. Most of everything alive on Earth was soon wiped out. Another half-million years of vulcanism were just icing on the cake. "