NEW research suggests toxic conditions on Earth were already headed for an extinction catastrophe 66 million years ago at the time some believe a meteorite allegedly wiped dinosaurs out.
It is believed that the Earth had extremely bad air quality and drastically low temperatures from tons of volcanic activity before the mass extinction event.
Researchers looked into levels of sulfur in rocks from what was once one of the largest volcanic features in the world, the Deccan Traps, and is now West India.
They used a new technique that allowed them to measure sulfur concentration and the high levels that were detected would have caused extremely unpleasant conditions millions of years ago
The research was published in a paper in Science Advances.
“Our data suggest that volcanic sulfur degassing from such activity could have caused repeated short-lived global drops in temperature,” University of Oslo geoscientist Sara Callegaro and colleagues said in the paper.
“Deccan Traps volcanism set the stage for a global biotic crisis, repeatedly deteriorating environmental conditions by forcing recurring short volcanic winters.”
The high levels of sulfur would have made it almost impossible for most forms of life to survive.
Overall, researchers are trying to pinpoint what could have completely wiped out everything on Earth considering it was such a tragic event.
Now, they believe they are closer to getting a better understanding of what the environment was like.
“Our research demonstrates that climatic conditions were almost certainly unstable, with repeated volcanic winters that could have lasted decades, prior to the extinction of the dinosaurs,” McGill University geochemist Don Baker said in a McGill release.
“This instability would have made life difficult for all plants and animals and set the stage for the dinosaur extinction event.
“Thus work helps explain this significant extinction event that led to the rise of mammals and the evolution of our species.”
However, the topic brings major debate among scientists who either believe it was a meteorite or volcanic activity that caused the extinction event.
It is still unclear exactly what exactly could have caused the mass wipeout.
