New techniques for
dating rocks confirmed that a chain of giant volcanic eruptions 200 million
years ago caused the sudden extinction of half the species now inhabiting the
Earth.
The result of the
research provides far more precise date of when this occurred, for 564 000 201
000 000 000 years ago, in the Triassic extinction event known as Final, or
fourth mass extinction, when the eruption of a volcano chain revolutionized the
climate by emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,
according to the report in the journal Science.
