The article below describes a time in ancient history (252 million years ago) when"life on the earth nearly ceased to exist--as much as 90 percent of marine life and 70 percent of terrestrial life died out." Sedimentary rocks from Italy (which were once on the bottom of a shallow sea), seem to indicate "that a great flood of ... terrestrial organic matter reached the sea and essentially swamped it, suffocating marine life."
The researchers believe that this, apparently the "earth's greatest mass extinction", was caused by ... a million-year-long intermittent Siberian volcano eruption. It seems the volcano, with its acid rain and pollutants and stuff, killed all the plants which were then washed into the sea. Humans and soil erosion are killing the planet again, by the way, so that may be "what is in store for us in the years ahead."
Seems to me that a worldwide flood would be a pretty good explanation for this Great Dying...
ScientificAmerican.com: Geologists Link the "Great Dying" to Volcanism
filed: science
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