Large Volcanic Eruption Caused the Largest Mass Extinction (IMAGE)

Tohoku University

Large Volcanic Eruption Caused the Largest Mass Extinction

Caption

The researchers found coronene-mercury enrichments in sedimentary rocks deposited in southern China and Italy 252 million years ago. Paired coronene - mercury enrichments are products of multiple phases of a large igneous province volcanism. This, they say, could have led to the environmental changes that caused the disappearance of many terrestrial and marine animal species.

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Kunio Kaiho

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Kunio Kaiho

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