Volcanoes also caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, scientists say

Researchers from Dartmouth College, in the United States, said on Monday (12) that we cannot rule out supervolcanoes as one of the causes of the extinction of the dinosaurs, in addition to the famous asteroid impact. The information is contained in a study published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to them, mega volcanoes have caused major extinction events throughout the history of our planet. In fact, four out of five of these events occurred in conjunction with massive eruptions that created vast lava flows. Therefore, they suggest that the extinction of the dinosaurs was due to a combination of massive eruptions and the impact of a giant asteroid.

The extinction of the dinosaurs

The debate over what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs is not new. Interestingly, the first hypothesis involved powerful volcanic eruptions that released ash and toxic gases into the Earth’s atmosphere. However, with the discovery of the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan Peninsula in 1970, the focus shifted to the collision of a huge asteroid.

“All the other theories that tried to explain the extinction of the dinosaurs were overturned when the crater was discovered,” says Brenhin Keller, one of the Dartmouth researchers.

However, there is little evidence that other impacts coincided with previous extinctions. Then Theodore Green, another author of the study, used supercomputers to quantify a relationship between eruptions and extinctions. He established that this was not a mere coincidence, but a causal relationship.

“The study also provides the most compelling quantitative evidence to date that there is a link between massive volcanic eruptions and species extinction,” he said in a statement.

volcanic remains

Four of the five mass extinction events were accompanied by molten basalt deposits, which were ejected from volcanoes and covered large areas of the earth’s surface. These basalt “floods” have left places known as “great igneous provinces”, made up of volcanic rocks. To qualify as such, a site must contain at least 100,000 km³ of magma.

We are aware of two large igneous provinces, one in Siberia and one in India. The first was formed when the eruptions released a huge pulse of carbon dioxide, choking life on Earth some 252 million years ago. The second, called “Deccan Basalts”, is located in what was once a region of intense volcanic activity around the time the dinosaurs went extinct.

“It appears that the formation of these great igneous provinces chronologically aligns with the events of mass extinction,” says Green.

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Source: Olhar Digital