'Earth Burp' May Have Caused Mass Extinction, Not Volcanic Activity

Researchers seem to keep finding new ways that most of the planet's life could have gone extinct.

Researchers at the Nordic Center for Earth Evolution at the University of Copenhagen claim to have discovered the cause of the extinction of over half the Earth's marine life 200 million years ago, reports Fox News. The cause, it seems, was a giant "Earth burp."

That is, a huge quantity of methane being released into the atmosphere.

The methane release likely originated from the sea floor, according to the study, and added a huge amount of carbon to the atmosphere, killing many species. LiveScience reports that the find suggests this event killed a number of species, paving the way for the rise of the dinosaurs.

The gas was releases over a period of 600,000 years, according to the report.

Scientists came to this conclusion by analyzing the chemical content of plant leaves preserved in the sediment at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean. By studying the different carbon isotopes in the sediment, scientists were able to draw these conclusions, reports LiveScience.

The researchers found a peak in favor of the lighter isotope, carbon 12, for a stint lasting about 20,000 to 40,000 years.

A strong shift in the ratio indicated that methane, not carbon dioxide, was responsible, Ruhl said.

In the past, scientists believed the reason for this extinction could be linked to an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

However, this doesn't change any theories about how the dinosaurs went extinct. Last month scientists uncovered further evidence to suggest that they were killed by a meteorite, and were roaming Earth at the time of impact.

There are a wide range of other mass extinction theories, including the idea that the Yellowstone supervolcano may have spread similar gases into the atmosphere that wiped out numerous species.

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Comments

[BannedInBoston]

10:36 PM on 07/25/2011

However, this doesn't change any theories about how the dinosaurs went extinct. Last month scientists uncovered further evidence to suggest that they were killed by a meteorite, and were roaming Earth at the time of impact. -- From the story. It wasn't a "meteorite." It was a giant asteroid. Bad science writing not to know the difference. Probably also doesn't know the difference between the Solar System, oue galaxy, and the universe. Many people don't but then they don't have pretensions as science writers....

[BannedInBoston]

10:31 PM on 07/25/2011

Giant methane release? Wouldn't that be, um, more like an Earth _FART?...

[Greatest Darthfruit]

04:26 PM on 07/25/2011

we need another BIG BURP!!

[IMOPINIONH8D]

08:44 PM on 07/24/2011

Scientist say that the melting perma frost will release methane. I hope its not enough to kill us all.

[alteredstory]

08:08 AM on 07/25/2011

I doubt it's enough for that, nor would THAT cause a "burp" event.

What might cause such an event is the methane clathrate/hydrates on the sea floor - get them too warm, and they destabilize and release large amounts of methane gas.

[jhnnxn]

07:26 PM on 07/24/2011

Since methane was the culprit wouldn't "earth fart" be more accurate?

[PhillyProfessor]

10:59 AM on 07/25/2011

Yes. Earth Fart is much more accurate. And amusing. If only they made Bean-O in the giant economy size, the planet would not be in the mess it is today.

[Jim Shaffer]

06:08 PM on 07/24/2011

See!? So takin' hydrocarbons from the ground is just part of the great circle of life !

[WESmith]

06:33 PM on 07/24/2011

If we put it in our car, we call it hydrocarbons.
If we put it in our mouth, we call it carbohydrate.

[Jim Milks]

05:09 PM on 07/24/2011

Might I suggest that Dean Praetorius actually read the research report before he posts his next news article? It's fairly obvious that he might have skimmed the abstract but little else, as his summary of the article is, shall we say, factually challenged.

First, Ruhl et al. did not find that methane was released for 600,000 years. Instead, they found that a 600,000 year period of increased CO2 emissions from a spike in volcanic activity. Within that 600,000 year period was a much shorter 10,000 to 20,000 year methane release.

Ruhl et al. propose that global warming caused by the increased CO2 triggered the release of methane from the oceans, which lead to a rapid spike in global temperatures, altered the water cycle (yes, they did find physical indications of such an alteration), and caused the End Triassic Mass Extinction. The implications for today are quite clear, especially as we've already noticed methane bubbling up from the Arctic Ocean.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17625-as-arctic-ocean-warms-megatonnes-of-methane-bubble-up.html

[LiberalScoop]

12:52 PM on 07/25/2011

I'm with you, Jim. I've read the same article, and others in agreement, quite some time ago. If I have this right, it's the theory that because the water is warming, the currents and thermal layers in the water are changing. The icy cold water at the ocean floor is being stirred by warmer waters, thereby allowing methane to escape from the ocean floor. I'm interested in this, so if you want to bring me out of the sophomoric explanation and in to something more accurate, free to add/correct.

[Howmanyreally]

03:38 PM on 07/24/2011

Sigh...Just once I would like to read comments about the subject at hand. I didn't even think about arguing religion or politics with this story. Give me science.

[The Pen]

07:16 AM on 07/24/2011

I find the Earth Burp theory just to implausable. The amount of decaying organic matter required to discharge 600,000 years worth of methane gas at the required concencration to kill life is simply to great, running into trillions of tonnes. A nice theory but a fundamentally flawed one.

[NRALiberal]

09:02 AM on 07/24/2011

There is enough methane at the bottom of the ocean to do this now. If something was different then please explain. The time scale seems implausible too me but the basic idea does not. If this did happen I would expect it to occur over a period of decades or years.

[The Pen]

10:29 AM on 07/24/2011

Hi NRALiberal, at present mankind extracts 2464 Billion cubic meters of methane a year. If the exraction rate were to continue as it is at the moment we would exaust the earths supply in just 400 years. That is equal to 960,000 Billion cubic meters.
If all of that methane were released in one " event " it would only account for 000.0001 to the power of 10 of 1% of the entire earths atmosphere. That is significantly less than a single drop of ink in Lake Michigan!.Lake Michigan representing the earths atmosphere and the ink representing all of the earths methane. Please also consider that there would have been less methane 200 Million years ago as the earth was 200 Million years younger.
There is also the fact that at a depth of just under 100 foot methane cannot escape the ocean floor due to the water pressure.
regards: The Pen

[Jim Milks]

04:52 PM on 07/24/2011

It would have been nice if Dean Praetorius had actually read the research report before writing his news report for HuffPost. I'm pretty certain that all he skimmed was the abstract. If he had read the entire report, he would have discovered that 12,000 to 36,000 metric tons of methane were only released for a 10,000 to 20,000 year period within the longer 600,000 year period of CO2 emissions from increased volcanic activity. The scientists who wrote the research report proposed that global warming from increased CO2 emissions triggered the release of the methane from the ocean, which caused a rapid spike in global temperatures, altered the water cycle, and caused the End Triassic Mass Extinction.

[Robco1]

05:52 PM on 07/24/2011

So, what you are saying is that increased CO2 released into the atmosphere caused methane to be released into the atmosphere, which triggered the worst mass extinction science has discovered?

And so when reports like this one from West Siberia come out, how concerned should we be?

Methane release from the not-so-perma-frost is the most dangerous amplifying feedback in the entire carbon cycle. Research published in Friday’s journal Science finds a key “lid” on “the large sub-sea permafrost carbon reservoir” near Eastern Siberia "is clearly perforated, and sedimentary CH4 [methane] is escaping to the atmosphere."
http://climateprogress.org/2010/03/04/science-nsf-tundra-permafrost-methane-east-siberian-arctic-shelf-venting/

[memery]

04:33 AM on 07/24/2011

Since methane was involved, this was clearly a giant fart. I wonder if the earth blamed it on the dog?

[RobertRob]

10:44 PM on 07/23/2011

I burped one Time & farted @ the same time & the world stood still 4 1/2 hour

[Merciful Wrath]

04:04 PM on 07/23/2011

This has happened a few times, fairly recently in Africa a lake did the same thing and killed of surrounding villages (no joke).

[The Pen]

05:16 PM on 07/24/2011

The lake you are refering to released Carbon Dioxide dissolved out of the surrounding geology not Methane.

[Merciful Wrath]

02:35 AM on 07/25/2011

Good you looked it up, well "dissolved from surrounding geology" is rather vague, CO2 from volcanic activity. Actually now thinking about it the event in this article was described in textbooks and classes already.

[Curt Mason]

02:41 PM on 07/23/2011

If it's methane, flatulence is a more appropriate description, i.e. it's not a burp, but a giant Earth FART!!

[Bob Wood]

12:28 PM on 07/23/2011

But did the Earth say..." Excuse me " ? (sigh)

[Chris Misdary]

01:12 PM on 07/23/2011

NOT AT ALL; IT JUST BLOWS YOU AWAY OFF HER AS* AND YOU NEVER WILL BE LANDED ON IT AGAIN, LOL

[Bob Wood]

01:52 PM on 07/23/2011

Probably never heard of Miss Manners...(sigh)

[mrst2328]

11:01 AM on 07/23/2011

all I can say is... burp