04-09-2003 20:40									#1
	Mass extinction: our collision course Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

250 million years ago, near the end of Permian period, a mass extinction took place in a span of 80,000 years. It was so massive that it wiped out 95% of all species on earth. It dwarfs the catastrophe that killed off the dinosaurs.

The cause? Climatic change, or an estimated increase of 10°C of the average surface temperature.

Newest research indicates that there were two stages to the cataclysm. First, a large scale basaltic fissure eruption in what's today's Siberia ejected sufficient CO₂ to raise the surface temperature by 5°C. This increased the temperature of the ocean water sufficiently to trigger the large stores of undersea methane hydrate to "melt" (disassociate), giving off huge quantities of methane. Its presence is indicated by the unusally high amount of carbon 12 during the period. This event caused a further rise in the surface temperature, wiping out most of the lifeforms on earth at the time.

With conservative estimates putting the rise in the average surface temperature at 5°C for the next 50-100 years, the undersea methane hydrate tanks will again "melt."

Isn't this fun?

	04-09-2003 20:43									#2
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

anther end of the world thread, whats new? .

	04-09-2003 20:43									#3
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Canada will finally be a decent place to live for my lifetime.

	04-09-2003 20:44									#4
	Inflate your Upload Space

Things will always go wrong and on such a big scale it is impossible to counter.

	04-09-2003 20:59									#5
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I watched a show on the discovery channel about what they called a super volcano that may be in the process of forming underneath Yellowstone that some think could wipe out most of the region and produce a worldwide castastrophe. Here is a link to the U.S. Geological Survey site about Yellowstone. I thought it was an interesting show.


http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/history.html

	04-09-2003 21:01									#6
	Remove this text

At least you will be able to fart in public again

	04-09-2003 21:04									#7
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

I honestly believe that Bruce Willis will stop this before it reaches catastrophic proportions.

Asmodean

	04-09-2003 21:11									#8
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

quote: Originally posted by Sprayber I watched a show on the discovery channel about what they called a super volcano that may be in the process of forming underneath Yellowstone that some think could wipe out most of the region and produce a worldwide castastrophe. Here is a link to the U.S. Geological Survey site about Yellowstone. I thought it was an interesting show. http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/history.html

I saw some program the other day too about some "super volcano," but I have a hard time believing a volcano could spew enough dust into the air to kill entire planet.

	04-09-2003 21:27									#9
	Re: Mass extinction: our collision course Tired of ads?

quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger 250 million years ago, near the end of Permian period, a mass extinction took place in a span of 80,000 years. It was so massive that it wiped out 95% of all species on earth. It dwarfs the catastrophe that killed off the dinosaurs.

Was it not 65 millions years ago that the dinosaurs made room available for us ?

	04-09-2003 21:44									#10
	Put an end to popups!

I'm not concerned... if it happens.... COOL!... if not... oh well...

	04-09-2003 21:47									#11
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Jack_www I saw some program the other day too about some "super volcano," but I have a hard time believing a volcano could spew enough dust into the air to kill entire planet.

Every few years, Central America burns their crop land. Depending on wind conditions, the air quaility in S/SE Texas from these man made fires causes problems w/ Air Quality (could be in conjunction w/ the piss poor Air here in Houston)
So it is possible (odds are probably the same as an Asteroid Hit) that a Super Volcano could cause catastrophic events world wide.
Wasn't there some natural disaster in the middle ages that dimmed the sun light on earth for a year or so?

	04-09-2003 21:49									#12
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

All these catastrophic possibilities have a very remote chance of actually happening...but let's all panic anyway.

	04-09-2003 21:55									#13
	Got spare money?

quote: Originally posted by Caligastia All these catastrophic possibilities have a very remote chance of actually happening

No they don't. Infact, most of them are guarenteed to happen - just a matter of when. The chances might be remote of it happening in your life time.... but some generation's got to be the unlucky one, eh?

	04-09-2003 21:55									#14
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

Well I hope this asteroid doesn't hit my grave..

	04-09-2003 22:38									#15
	Full PM-box? Change here!

quote: Originally posted by Park Avenue Well I hope this asteroid doesn't hit my grave..

... although it would make a unique and original stone on a grave ...

	04-09-2003 23:29									#16
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

quote: Originally posted by CorpusScorpius Wasn't there some natural disaster in the middle ages that dimmed the sun light on earth for a year or so?

Krakatoa erupts so violently every 150 years as to destroy its island. In 535, the eruption caused Justian's plague (and thus the slow collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire), set the Avars on their Westward trek, caused the collapse of a couple American Indian civizations, brought about the end of Roman Britain (which had still been fighting off the Saxons), and quite a few other things as well. It is likely reponsible for the little ice age at the begining of the 14th Century and caused the year without a summer in the 19th.

Krakatoa is just a regular, though very active, volcano.

	05-09-2003 01:32									#17
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I understood the late PErmian event to be caused by the "Snow Ball Earth" event during which glaciation occured within 10-15 degrees north or south of the equator. Let me pull out my old "Geologic Catastrophes" text book and see if I'm remembering correctly or not.

	05-09-2003 01:36									#18
	Put an end to popups!

I'm still worried about our bannana supply . . . . .

	05-09-2003 01:39									#19
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Snowball or fireball -- make up your minds!

	05-09-2003 01:39									#20
	Got spare money?

quote: Originally posted by chegitz guevara Krakatoa is just a regular, though very active, volcano.

Yeah you’re right. The really mega volcanoes no longer exist. For the 2.5 billion years of the Earth's history the Earth's mantle was still hot enough (both from residual accreationary heat and from greater radioactivity) to produce crystallite pipes. Crystallite pipes were volcanoes which were so large and erupted so violently at pressures so great that diamonds and other crystals were formed as the magma shot up the volcano's throat.

There's a diamond mine in northern Canada where the diamonds were created in this fashion.

	05-09-2003 01:47									#21
	Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by The Mad Monk Snowball or fireball -- make up your minds!

The Permian was so long ago that much of the geologic formations don't exist any more (we're talking WAAAAAAAAYYY before the dinosaurs; around 250 million compared to 65 million years ago) so it is hard to say 100% what happened. There are lots of competing theories about what happened but one thing is certain 90% of all marine life ceased to exist at the end of the Paleozoic.

Still it's an important period because all of the known living animal phyla appeared within a few millions of years and roughly halfway in to the Permian animals, fungi, and plants all colonized the land and the insects became the first flying life on Earth.

	05-09-2003 01:52									#22
	Re: Re: Mass extinction: our collision course Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Originally posted by DAVOUT Was it not 65 millions years ago that the dinosaurs made room available for us ?

Yes. There were several mass extinctions through out the Earth's history history but the end Permian event was the worst.

	05-09-2003 06:07									#23
	Suffering from ads?

I've said it once and I've said it again.

It's better that the Earth is destroyed by a vague, guilt-creating catastrophe than by a country whose name starts with U and ends with nited States of America.

	05-09-2003 06:30									#24
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

This is what caused the Permian extictions:

1. An asteroid hits the area that is now the shallow sea between Argentina and the Falkland Islands.

2. The shockwaves concentrate at the exact opposite point of the earth, Siberia, causing enourmous volcanic activity

3. Some extinctions in the oceans

4. Average global temperature increases by 5 degrees C, realeasing methane from the ocean floors.

5. Massive land extintions

6. The average global temperature increases by 5 MORE degees.

7. Massive ocean extinctions

8. 95% of species extinct, Triassic Period begins

The great Permian extinction massacred the Paleozoic inveretabrates, including the coral-making cnidarians of the time, coral reefs would not return untill modern stoney corals evolve in the Jurassic. Most of the Mammal-like reptiles die out and are replaced by the Archosaurs, the group that crocs and dinos (including birds) belong to, as the dominant large land animals.

	05-09-2003 06:36									#25
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

You can't really say 95% of all species went extinct because 9/10 plus of our date is all near shore marine animals because that's where the best conditions for preserving fossiles exists. Of course any anoxic enviroment will work and the faster the specimen is buryed the better but the way fossils are traped does create a satistical bias.

	05-09-2003 06:39									#26
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

From the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/darw...les/permian.htm
[/quote]
estimated that as many as 96% of all marine species were lost, while on land more than 3 quarters of all vertebrate families became extinct[/quote]

Do you see the difference in extinction rates between land and sea creatures? Remember it is much, much more difficult to create a fossile on land then at sea. Now that we realize our fossil record is biased towards near shore marine species then you can figure out the next contributing factor.

Suppose you are a near shore animal like a clam and you want to find yourself a happy little home. The more shore line there is then the more potential habitate area you have but the less shore area there is in the world the less habitate you have. It just so happens that Pangea (the best known of the super contents) was formed at the end of the Permian so instead of 6-8 contents, each with shore lines, we now have one big content and all of the near shore animals must be crowded into a smaller area. Add on to this that if you are a clam in a closing sea way it isn't like you can justhike over land a couple of hundred miles to get to the new ocean and even if you do make it to the new shore areas then you still have to worry if it's the right temperature for you. Tropical animals don't do well in sub artic places and the creation of the super content ment things were getting colder fast because of changing ocean currents.

Last edited by Oerdin on 05-09-2003 at 06:46

	05-09-2003 06:42									#27
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

Don't you know that this is just God's angry rumblings because the world is rapidly becoming a 21st century Sodom. I mean, those perverted child-molesting gays are getting married and pornography is on display in public places, clearly visible to children (despite the best efforts of J. Ashcroft Esq.); the television is awash with filthy degenerates and good honest white people can't find work because of affirmative action.

His judgement cometh and that right soon.....

	05-09-2003 06:43									#28
	Get a bigger avatar today!

Agathon, don't do that. I have to deal with people that actually believe that every day

	05-09-2003 06:45									#29
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

quote: Originally posted by mrmitchell Agathon, don't do that. I have to deal with people that actually believe that every day

You better repent, boy!!!!!!

Anyway, the above is soon coming to a church near you.

	05-09-2003 07:05									#30
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

A brief over view of the four leading theories for the Permian extinction.

http://hannover.park.org/Canada/Mus.../permcause.html