Humans Emitting Carbon Dioxide 200 Times Faster Than Supervolcanic Eruptions That Caused Earth’s Most Severe Mass ExtinctionsLead researcher Dr. Qiang Jiang, a Curtin Ph.D. graduate from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the findings were vital to understanding how to prevent future climate disasters.
“An example of a less-deadly supervolcano is the Kerguelen large volcanic province — an enormous body of lava in the southern Indian Ocean three times the size of France. Its sheer area and volume makes it the second largest series of super volcanic eruptions since complex life began on Earth some 540 million years ago.
“We used the argon-argon dating technique to date the Kerguelen lava flows, by analyzing a series of black basaltic rocks drilled from the bottom of the sea floor,” Professor Jourdan said. “Other deadly supervolcanoes wiped out life primarily through rapid release of enormous volumes of carbon dioxide. Perhaps the Kerguelen eruptions emitted much slower or much less carbon dioxide, or both,” Dr. Olierook said.
“However, alarmingly our calculations also show that we are now currently emitting carbon dioxide 200 times faster than those supervolcanic eruptions that caused the most severe mass extinctions.”
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