Volcanic eruptions helped dinosaurs dominate the Earth

High concentrations of mercury in sediments support the theory that dinosaurs rose to dominate Earth after a series of volcanic eruptions 200 million years ago.

Scientists believe that a series of volcanic eruptions caused the mass extinction event that paved the way for the rise of dinosaurs. Graphic: Conversation.

New research by Tamsin Mather, professor of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, UK, strengthens the hypothesis of strong volcanic eruptions in200 million years ago caused global climate change, leading tothe end-Triassic mass extinction event and paved the way for the rise of the dinosaurs,ConversationJune 21 news.

Geologists have previously discovered that the Earth’s crust contains large amounts of volcanic rock from the Late Triassic period. Fossil data shows that during this period, a large number of species on Earth became extinct, paving the way for the proliferation of dinosaurs and other surviving species.

According to scientists, volcanic activitytook place over about a million years causingglobal climate change, leading to a mass extinction. The missing link in the hypothesis is evidence of such a global-scale event.

Study of 6 sedimentary datarelated to the end-Triassic mass extinction event,on four continents in two hemispheres,Mather and colleagues found increased concentrations of mercury, produced by volcanic activity due toSedimentary samples in Morocco contain volcanic rocks from large lava flows(CAMP).

CAMPbornafter a series of massive volcanic eruptions on the supercontinent Pangaea, which existed during the Mesozoic Era and once contained all the present-day continents before breaking apart about 200 million years ago.

High concentrations of mercury were also detected between sediments associated with the mass extinction event and sediments marking the beginning of the Jurassic period, which occurred about 100,000–200,000 years later.

The match between the amount of mercury released into the atmosphere and deposited in sediments and the increase in atmospheric CO2 at that time, strengthens the previous hypothesis that the CO2 that caused the end-Triassic mass extinction was volcanically generated.

Modern volcanic eruptions produce large amounts of SO2, CO2 and mercury. Mercury can remain in the atmosphere for 6-24 months before settling into sediments at the bottom of lakes, rivers and seas.

According to VNE